A Soldier No Longer (REWRITTEN)
by Writen
Summary: A flash of light. A new world. A second chance. That was all it took for Locus to leave his old life behind. An undiscovered planet meant that old ghosts stayed buried. But it isn't the past he has to worry about anymore. Now, he has to worry about who he wants to become using this vital second chance, because he is a soldier no longer.
1. Prologue: Simple Brilliance

**Prologue: Simple Brilliance**

Simple Brilliance.

That was one way to describe it.

The scenario when you working so hard to figure out a problem for so long, only to eventually you give up and ask somebody for help? When they give you the answer, it seemed so simple all along and it makes you feel like such a fool.

Does everyone know that?

I do.

I'd killed so many people without even stopping to think what made Agent Washington special. How he could consider himself a soldier even though he did things no soldier should do. I thought he was insane. But what I saw in him I started to see in everyone else around me, until I realized it wasn't Washington that was insane.

Look at me. Rambling. Must be age, or paranoia.

Probably both.

You'd think that being at the communications temple one second and the middle of an open field the next would startle any normal human being.

I'm not a human being though, just another monster.

* * *

There wasn't a flash of light or a portal when Locus arrived, he just simply appeared out of what seemed to be thin air, losing his balance along the way and falling over, taking a moment to let the sudden wave of nausea he had felt wash away.

As he stood, he found a veritable plethora of weapons that had been laying right next to him. Where they had come from he had no idea. A gift from Santa perhaps? It did not change the fact that he retrieved them without hesitation. His rearmament complete, he gazed around his surroundings, looking for any clue as to his whereabouts.

The first thing he noticed, was how _different_ everything around him looked. Between the forest to the north, and the vast plains to the south, this place had very little in common with Chorus. Granted, He, Felix, and the Space Pirates had turned the planet into a warzone, so perhaps that was for the best.

He looked back between the plains and the forest, struggling to decide which way to go. A column of smoke began to rise from deep within the forest, and his decision was made for him. He didn't have anything else to go on, but at least in the forest he might find somebody.

From inside the forest, Locus' eyes were drawn to the life that was bursting from every part of it. From the bugs in the grass, to the birds in the trees, nature was blooming freely here. Wherever it was.

His peaceful walk through the forest was violently interrupted as a large multicolored specimen tore through the shrub. It took Locus a moment to recognize it as some sort of mutated bear, his mind having whirled around primarily the wildlife of Chorus. Why it was on the wrong planet, Locus did not know, and it did not matter, because this bear seemed to very angry.

The Ursa dived towards the sage sniper, narrowly missing him. The Ursa's claws dug into the fertile soil beneath it, before looking around in bewilderment as to where his prey had dissapeared to.

A quick burst from Locus' SAW ripped apart it's head with ease. As it's corpse disintegrated into the forest floor, the ex-soldier deactivated his cloak, returning to view a mere moment later.

One ambushed Locus from behind a nearby bush, ramming Locus with it's boned head, stumbling the warrior. The Ursa prepared to charge again but was cut short by a long burst from Locus' SAW to incapacitate it and a shotgun blast to finish it off.

Looking around, he saw one of the another two mere feet away from him, charging fast. With no time to react, Locus braced himself for impact, being rammed by the Ursa into a cluster of brambles.

* * *

"Nghh" I growled as I came to. With blurred vision I watched as first one then two black bear-like creatures stumbled towards me lazily. The one closest to me roared viciously and began to charge at me. I attempted to reach for a weapon but my arm was pinned underneath a large tree limb. As the creature closed in I braced myself, waiting for the inevitable strike that would seal my fate.

 **BANG**

 **SLASH**

 **SLASH**

 **BANG**

 **BANG**

Three shots rang out as the first creature as well as his companion fell over dead, before vaporizing. Curiously I wondered in the back of my mind why they had vaporized when they were killed, but I didn't have time to dwell on it.

"Hello? Anyone there?" Someone said in a distinct Australian accent.

I simply grunted in response, too weak to say anything else.

The walking footsteps turned into jogging and a few broken branches and pulled brambles later, the mysterious savior had found me.

"Yeesh, you look pretty banged up, we should get you to a doctor. You must of run outta aura didn't ya?" He inquisited.

"Aura? I don't have..." I responded weakly.

"You don't have aura? That's a death wish, ya bloke. Roaming around these parts without an aura is a pretty good way to get yourself killed."

He kneeled down and wrapped his arm around my upper back, helping me up. Getting a good look at him I realized he seemed to have some sort of rat-like animal ears on his head.

"My name is Pershing, by the way." He informed.

"You..." I began.

"What?"

"You have...something on your head."

"What? What's on my head?"

"It looks like rat's ears."

"Oh yeah? That's real funny, you fucking mug." Pershing scorned.

"I didn't mean to...offend you." I apologized.

"I save your life and what do I get in return? Racism. I'd shoulda just let those Ursa's eat you." Pershing stated coldly.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I retorted.

"Just cause I'm a faunas doesn't mean I'm some sort of "evil Grimm-human hybrid" or some such bullshit. What a fucking joke." Pershing continued, melodramatically.

"A faunas?" I asked curiously.

"What? Seriously? You don't even know what a faunas even is?" He exclaimed in a frustrated tone.

"No." I answered lazily.

"Well if your seriously some sorta backwater "never seen a faunas in my life" farmer, then allow me to explain." Pershing began, to which I responded with an annoyed glance.

"Faunas are basically still the exact same human beings you guys are. Only difference is, we have animal traits. Ears, tails, eyes, teeth, you name it. Some faunas actually have animal parts only on the inside of them, making it harder to identify them."

"I didn't know that." I confessed.

"Well, if you really didn't, then I guess I can't really blame ya. Why were you out here anyways?" Pershing questioned.

"Saw a column of smoke." I answered.

"Yeah, that must of been the handiwork of Point and Blank on a pack of beowolves." He stated while scratching his stubble.

"Point and Blank?"

"Yeah, my weapons. Twin hook swords that turn into sawed off shotguns. Really nice if I say so myself." He explained with a hint of pride in his voice.

"Anyways, I gotta get back to Vale and get my pay for clearing out most of this forest." Pershing said as he tapped a few buttons on a device he pulled from a pocket from the bandolier on his armored chest.

"What is that?" I asked, referring to the rectangular device.

"It's called a scroll, it's an electronic device connected the the worldwide CCT. I bet you never heard of those either." He informed without looking up from the screen.

I growled in annoyance at his insult.

"Relax gov, I'm just messing with ya."

As if on cue, a dot in the distance appeared on the horizon becoming bigger as it neared us. Eventually I could make out that it was a flying craft.

"ARE YOU THE HUNTSMEN I'M SUPPOSED TO PICK UP?" The pilot yelled over the roar of the engines

"NO! I'M A FUCKING LAWYER! WHAT DO YOU THINK? NOW LET US IN!" Pershing shot back.

As the side bay door lifted, Pershing lifted my body into the cabin first where I strapped myself in, before pulling himself up and closing the side bay doors. As we departed I felt the whole plane violently shoot upwards.

Pershing equipped a breathing mask dangling from the roof of the cabin before extending one to me.

"Ya need a mask or does that helmet do it for you?" He asked.

"Why would I need a gas mask?" I asked.

"Because we have to shoot to at least 20,000 meters to avoid airborne Grimm. It's pretty hard to breathe up there ya know, and dust powered air filters don't work at those altitudes for some reason. So we have to use the masks." He explained quickly as he put the mask back where he found it.

"Then why didn't you give a mask to me?" I questioned.

"Well if you're talking, then you're breathing aren't ya? So all's good." He shot back.

"How did I get here?" I wondered to myself.

"'Scuse me, what was that?" Pershing asked.

"Nothing." I answered, ending the conversation.

After that, the only sound that could be heard was the hum of the engines from inside the cabin. Pershing remained still in a brooding way. Only moving to take out a photo of someone I didn't recognize. He stared long and hard into the photo before putting it back in on of his bandolier satchel.

I was about to just pass out on the airplane when suddenly a crimson light started blinking from my gauntlet. I tapped the button from which the light was emanating and I saw the last thing I expected to see pop out from it.

Santa.

"Greetings, warrior." The construct said.

"Ah! What the bloody hell is that?!" Pershing nearly shouted in surprise.

"I am an A.I. Construct created to guard the temples of Chorus and assist the true warrior in battle if the need arises." The alien informed the faunas.

"How did you get here?" I questioned.

"I uploaded myself on to your suit and then I teleported you to this planet."

"How did you upload yourself on to my suit without my knowing... Wait. Did you say different planet?"

"Correct. Earlier you stated that you wanted to "make things right." So I found a manifest of places for you to go to accomplish this goal, and eventually found a planet that had no known UNSC or Covneant activity on it. The planet of Remnant." The A.I. Informingly stated.

"Which is where we are now?" I asked.

"Correct." He concluded.

After a tense and slightly awkward moments of silence, Pershing piped up again.

"So you're saying that your an A.I... An alien A.I. No less." Pershing said in disbelief.

"Correct." Santa confirmed.

"If what you're saying is true, does that make him an alien?" Pershing asked in suspicion.

"Though he is a human like many others on your planet, the fact that he comes from another world technically labels him as on such outsider. Because of this-"

"In English please." Pershing rudely interrupted.

"Yes. He is an alien." Santa confirmed.

"Well shit... That's one hell of a plot twist, mate. What's your name anyways?"

"I am the former Covenant A.I. Designation: Santa."

"No not you." Pershing said as he turned to look at me.

"Who are _you?_ " He asked in an interrogative tone.

"My name is Locus. I used to be a soldier before becoming a mercenary. That's all I will say right now."

Just then the bullhead touched down and the side bay door opened, revealing the new world I had stepped into.

* * *

Santa blinked twice before disappearing back into Locus' gauntlet before the twin engine's began to power down. The two warriors stepped onto the landing pad where a huge mansion lay before them.

"Schnee family mansion. One of them at least. They got four of em. One on each continent." Pershing informed to his newfound companion as he walked up to a intercom with a small red button below it.

Pershing pressed the button before a voice crackled through the intercom.

"Who's there?" It asked.

"It's me. Pershing. That huntsman you sent to the emerald forest to clear out some Grimm, remember? I'm here to receive payment of 12,000 lien."

"Hold on a second, let me just run that through the system." The voice stated before cutting out and leaving us standing there for a few moments before it came back.

"Alright, just to make sure your not some poser, we got a code word system in place in order for you to receive payment. What's the code word?" The voice asked.

"Mirror Mirror on the wall." Pershing replied.

"Give me a second." The voice repeated again before cutting out and reappearing again.

"Alright you're clear. Head on in. Ms. Schnee is waiting for you." The voice informed as a klaxon sounded, notifying the opening of the two large security gates to the mansion.

"Schnee himself is rich but he's only rich because he benefits off of faunas labor. He's a fucking prick as far I'm concerned. Unfortunately for me I have to be real polite and shit around him. If I'm not, he cuts my pay." Pershing coldly announced.

They walked up to a set of large mahogany double doors which the two bodyguards next to them opened for them. Ushering them in. As they walked through the humongous mansion, Locus saw many tapestries and and statues.

Most of them were of humans triumphing over Grimm or posing for a picture. Locus noted that a few of the statues were of humans triumphing over faunas, and one tapestry even pictured faunas as slaves. Locus also noted how Pershing gritted his teeth in anger upon looking at the offensive artworks.

After one final set of double doors, they opened to see a room filled with bookshelves shaped in a curve to fit the curve of the wall that surrounded them.

In the middle of the room were two elegant red velvet chairs with a gold plated coffee table spread out before it. Behind this coffee table was an even more elegant looking chair that was larger than the first two. Like a throne, almost. In the chair sat an emotionless woman with carefully fixed white hair and attire.

Winter Schnee.

"Welcome back Pershing. Whom might that be beside you?" Winter asked in the most military tone possible.

"Someone I picked up along the way. I can still receive payment even if he's here, can't I, sir?" Pershing persisted.

"Why of course you can. But before you receive payment, I want to discuss something with you. I'll need your companion here to step out for a moment." She commanded.

"I understand." Locus said before stepping out into the hallway and closing the soundproof doors.

"The entire reason I had you clear out to emerald forest is because my sister is going to be there soon. You see, against my father's better judgement she decided she wanted to become a huntress at Beacon academy." She began.

"The initiates must go through the emerald forest to enroll in beacon academy. Which is why I payed you to clear it out. Here is your lien, by the way." Winter said, handing him a stack of payment.

"Thank you, sir. But how does this situation relate to me?" Pershing asked.

"Ah. Always thinking about yourself first, as usual. I still need you to find someone who can oversee the concert hall so that my sister will not be hurt, but will not intervene otherwise."

"I understand, sir." Pershing replied as he rose to walk out.

"Oh, and Pershing?" Schnee said as Pershing paused just short of the door handle.

"Yes, sir?" Pershing asked without turning to face her.

"That companion of yours that you brought in earlier, can he fight?"

"I witnessed him take on multiple Ursa Majors. He eliminated three before he was incapacitated by the last one. He did this without the use of a semblance or an aura."

"Hmmm. Interesting. A man who doesn't need to use an aura or semblance but can still take on powerful Grimm? That sounds like the person I'm looking for to guard my sister. Perhaps I didn't need you to search for a candidate after all, Pershing. Perhaps fate brought that candidate to me. Bring him in please." Schnee commanded.

"Are you sure, sir?" Pershing asked.

"I wouldn't have asked you if I wasn't sure." Schnee bluntly replied.

"As you wish, sir." Pershing relented as he opened the doors in front of him, turning to Locus.

"Ms. Schnee would like to see you, sir." Pershing requested as he stepped out of the room while Locus stepped in.

As the doors closed behind them, Winter began. "Ah, welcome. Please seat yourself. Would you like some tea perhaps?" Schnee offered.

"I didn't come here for formalities. Why did you call me in?" Locus asked rudely.

"Hmph. Fine. Before we do anything else, take of your helmet and tell me your name. I at least want to the know the name and face of the man I'm hiring."

Locus took off his helmet to reveal a dark-toned hispanic man with a loosely fitted ponytail, a single strand of hair near his right eye.

"My name is Locus."

"Tell me more about yourself." Winter proddingly asked

"I used to be a soldier before I became a mercenary. I was hired by the wrong people to do the wrong things so I left that job. Now I'm here. That's all I will say." Locus revealed.

"Would you be interested in another mercenary job, perhaps?"

"I don't do killer for hire. Not anymore." Locus stated.

"Oh no, believe me, it's not one of THOSE jobs. I'm going to use you for a more important job in the future IF you agree. However I need to test your limits first." She informed.

"Go on." Locus commanded, slightly more interested.

"There is a train, my sources tell me that terrorist operatives from the white fang are going to attempt to hijack it in order to steal the dust onboard to use for their so-called "revolution." I will place you on the train, and you will defend the cargo if necessary."

"The pay?"

"8,500 lien."

"Will there be any other security?" Locus questioned.

"Yes, a large platoon of atleasian military AK-130 security bots as a well as a Grumath industries BMP-45 spider droid.." Winter informed.

"So. Do you accept?" She tempted.

"Yes, sir." Locus agreed.

"Good. Go to Peruga train station at the edge of the forever fall forest at 8:45 tomorrow morning. I expect for you to be there, and I will be very disappointed if I find out you won't. Leave now, and don't come back until the job is finished." She beckoned, ending the conversation.

As Locus walked out and closed the double doors to the huge office-like room, Pershing was there beside the doors, leaning against the wall, smirking while staring through the skylight.

"What'd I tell ya? Fucking prick."

 **EDIT: REWRITTEN AS OF JUNE 27 2016**

 **And there you guys go. End of the first chapter. GOD this one was a pain in the ass to write because I had to revise it so many times because of the cliches that I had to get rid of.**

 **Hell, I'm still not sure I got rid of all of them. To make things worse I accidentally deleted a good part of it and then accidentally clicked save so I had to re-write an entire portion of the story as well.**

 **Anyways, finally done. Leave a review, favorite, all that shit.**

 **I know I said the first chapter was coming out in June but I was in a good mood so I decided to make one for you guys. However the reason I made this is because I have a lot and I mean A LOT planned for the summer, so it's unlikely I'll be able to make weekly update on this story.**

 **So uhh yeah. Nothing here more for me to say. Review my tiny little story yes?**


	2. Chapter 1: A Sea of Red

**Chapter 1: A Sea Of Red**

A Sea of Red.

That was all he could see until the horizon, thanks to the Crimson coloring of the trees in the forest.

As a calm breeze blew across the nicks and scratches in his armor, I could hear the whistle of a train and the screech of brakes in the distance before he spotted it rolling around the hill on the opposite side from the forest.

As it gradually came to a full stop, the side door of one of the larger cars opened and revealed a team of security bots. One of the bots, seemingly the leader, turned its lighting from red to white.

The bot approached me and revealed itself to be Ms. Schnee. A holographic screen appeared in front of the robot revealing Ms. Schnee with a neat stack of paperwork on her desk. Winter was wearing her usual stone cold face with no emotion.

"Ah, Locus. So it seems you came after all, couldn't resist the money, I suppose." She stated.

Locus replied with silence as he continued on.

"I trust you will get to the SDC loading yards with my train and dust intact?" She asked through the bot's microphone filter.

"Dust, sir?"

"You... Do not know what dust is?"

"No, sir."

"Well all you need to know is that it's important, and that you've been hired to protect it.." He explained.

"It's best you be on your way. I'm a very busy woman. Oh, one more thing, the train conductors are all armed, so you'll want to speak with them first. I trust you will protect them until they arrive?" She asked.

"Yes, sir." He responded.

"Good."

The bot that she had just communicated through, turned back from its white to the original red, signaling that it was time to go. The bot boarded the train and joined the other bots in two parallel lines facing each other, on stand-by mode.

Locus journeyed around the side to the front of the train itself to meet the crew, eventually spying four men all wearing conductor suits.

Two were taking a smoke break in the grass, one was resting against a rock, and the last one, seemingly the leader because he was wearing a differently colored uniform, was going through system checks to make sure the train was in working order.

One of the smokers noticed Locus first when he glanced in my direction.

"Hey Murphy! The new Murky's here!" He called out to the leader of the crew.

"That so?" He asked inquisitively, sticking his head out the conductor's window.

Slowly, he got out of the train cabin and jumped down from the train, sizing Locus up as he walked towards me. He seemed old, perhaps in his mid fifties.

"Well hot damn, you're right. Name's Murph. Now I know why they sent you, and before you asked, yes we are armed. My crew here have rifles and I got a pistol." He listed.

"Thanks to all the dust robberies recently, Schnee himself is arming even us now." The one on the rock explained.

"Oh by the way, here's an earpiece. All my men have one, we'll contact you to tell you where the white fang are through the security cameras on the cars. Good luck to you."

"So you all know what to do if they come for you?" He asked.

"Yeah, we know." Murphy said in a grim tone.

"Alright. See you when we reach the yards." He replied before turning away and walking towards the cargo car.

"Oh, and one other thing. What is a "murky"?" He questioned, partly turning his head.

"It's a little nickname we came up for new mercenaries. Now get going." Murphy answered.

Turning his head away again, Locus walked back and boarded the train car where the cargo was, readying himself for any possible situation that may arise.

"Your wounds from the Ursa Major have nearly healed." Santa chimed in.

"You've been quiet lately." Locus pointed out.

"I only speak when necessary." He responded.

"If you're an A.I., does that mean you can assist me with my equipment in battle?" Locus asked.

"Correct, that is my current prime directive in the hands of the true warrior."

"Let's hope you can." Locus said.

As the train whistled loudly and lurched forwards, I could only wonder how deep this rabbit hole went.

* * *

White steam poured out of the top of the smokestack, signalling the ill-fated train was leaving Peruga station. A few minutes later, the train was rolling along at its normal speed. The red leaves and wind whipping and biting ferociously at the steel chassis frame of the front.

From high above a hill, two figures stood silently like watchmen before sliding down the hill and jumping on to the train, piercing their swords through the roof of the boxcar to stabilize themselves.

Quickly, they advanced to the next car before one, dressed in red, cut the lock on the hatch of the car. They opened it and dropped down with his partner in crime into the train.

As the two dropped down onto the floor, they both set off the motion sensors in the car at the same time, activating the dormant security on either side of them.

"Looks like we'll be doing this the hard way." The one clad in red stated.

"Don't be so dramatic." The other joked.

* * *

 _ **WARNING! MAJOR SECURITY BREACH DETECTED IN CAR 89! AK-130 SECURITY DROIDS ACTIVATED. BMP-45 SPIDER DROID HAS BEEN PUT ON PATROL MODE!**_

"That's your cue! I can see two of 'em and it looks like they're ripping the droids apart. Get going!" Murphy commanded into Locus' earpiece.

Opening the hatch to the train car, he activated his cloaking just as a security droid was thrown from the train a few cars back. Activating thermal imaging, he spotted the two intruders.

Time to go to work.

Spotting the faunas intruders, Locus ducked behind a stack of crates, calming his breathing.

Meanwhile the robotic security was being ripped apart with little effort by the two operatives, either by sword or by firearm. Locus calmed his breathing as equipped his sniper rifle and spotting one of the two intruders, a girl no older than 18 clad in black.

The first shot seemed to cause her tremendous pain as she fell over.

"Blake!"

Quickly her companion tackled Blake behind a series of crates to avoid her any further injuries from sniper fire.

"Sniper on the roof a few cars up." She informed.

"Can you see him?" He asked.

"No, I think he has some sort of cloaking semblance, but he's somewhere that way. We're going to have to draw him out."

"Got it." Her compatriot said before un-sheathing his red sword.

As Locus fired another long range sniper shot, it was suddenly split in half by a red sword wielded by a faunas in a Grimm mask, seemingly charging an energy in the sword itself. The bullet's vapor trail split into two smaller vapor trails as he sliced through the round.

Locus fired two more rounds, only for the man in red to block those as well.

As he ducked behind his cover again, Locus considered his options. Risking an all-out frontal assault would be risky, but continuing to try and snipe them would be suicide as the mysterious swordsman could easily block it. He needed a new strategy.

"He is standing next to explosive dust canister, perhaps you could detonate that." Santa suggested suddenly.

Without a better idea, Locus followed Santa's plan. Popping out of cover, he fixated the reticle of the sniper rifle on a canister of dust marked "FIRE DUST: HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE"

He immediately fired, detonating the dust inside and blowing Adam back into cover.

"Well, that sniper's good, I'll give him that. We need a new plan." Red pointed out to his comrade.

"I have an idea, block him for as long as possible while I move up close to him using my semblance."

"Alright! Good luck, and don't get shot." He said before leaping out of cover, blocking shots that seemingly came out of thin air.

Meanwhile his partner was running from cover to cover while using her clone semblance to protect her from shots that differ to her.

Eventually they both reached the train car that the sage sniper stood on. By now Locus had switched from his sniper rifle to his SAW and was buzzing down the immediate area when either one of them popped out of cover.

However, without warning, the one in black used what seemed to be a pitch black string tied to her weapon to grapple onto the train car. She easily somersaulted over Locus, forcing him to turn to her as they began to duel on the train car.

Without missing a beat she kicked the SAW out Locus' hands, forcing him to de-cloak and enter hand-to-hand combat.

In a heartbeat, Locus activated the great key, entering a high speed sword duel with his black clad opponent. Through a flurry of high speed kicks and slices, she managed to flash past Locus' defense, injuring Locus before he retaliated. Locus interrupted the Faunas' fury with a well placed slice. Her offensive stream broken, she quickly blocked each of Locus' retaliatory attacks.

Eventually Locus managed to lock swords with the Faunas.

As the Great Key actually started to melt through her pitch-black sword, her eyes widened in surprise. Deciding to disengage, she was immediately replaced by her compatriot in red.

The one in red entered a strength contest with Locus, their respective swords pushing against one another at full force. Whoever gave in first, died.

Unlike his companion, the one in red's swords seemed to actually absorb the energy from the great key instead of melting upon contact with it.

"Unusual, I've never seen a sword quite like yours before. Who are you?" Red asked.

Locus did not answer.

Adam simply pressed his sword even harder in Locus' sword.

However, before it could be decided who was stronger, the train lurched backwards when the train braked, throwing all three of them forward. Forcing them to fall over.

Getting up, Locus quickly wondered why the train had stopped. His question was swiftly answered when a friendly voice came crackling through his headset.

"Hey Murky, you alright? The train just ran into a fallen tree on the tracks.." Murphy piped in.

"I'm fine." He responded quickly.

"Well the spider droid is headed your way now. Good luck." Murphy informed.

Suddenly the spider droid in question hopped onto the train car, crawling its way to the Faunas in black. The droid fired a focused shot at her. However she dodged and left a clone where she was standing to take the hit for her. However the spider droid scored a lucky hit and knocked her back a few feet, incapacitating her.

Immediately the spider droid switched targets to Adam. Both Locus and the spider droid opened fire at the same time at him. however he managed to block all their shots, seemingly using the energy stored in his sword to make himself faster than he was before.

"It appears this... Adam is using kinetic energy stored in his blade to absorb your attacks and amplify his own physical abilities. I find that ability to be most interesting." Santa commended.

"What do we do?" Locus asked.

"I will upload myself into the nearby droid while you get behind him. He is nimble in his strikes. However I noted that when he was caught in the fire dust explosion, he seems to lose a majority of the energy in the sword." Santa explained.

"Just do it!" Locus commanded.

"As you wish." Santa replied quickly before the dim black light of the spider droid suddenly glowed red like a dying sun.

The spider droid, now under control of Santa, took cover behind a large pile of broken crates and focused its plasma fire at and around Adam. Without much effort, Adam blocked each and every plasma shot, quickly charging up his sword until it as well as most of his body glowed neon red.

As that was happening, Locus had already activated his cloaking and was circling around the now preoccupied Adam.

Quickly, Locus grabbed his SAW off the ground that he had dropped earlier, before arriving at a good point to attack Adam from behind.

Without hesitation, Locus equipped his sniper rifle, aimed for Adam's head.

And fired.

Unfortunately, the train jump started again with renewed power, causing Locus' shot to stray far away from Adam, who had also lost his balance when the train jolted forward.

Snapping his head to where the shot came from, Adam spotted a shimmer on the next train car over. Realizing what was happening, he quickly used his built up power to cut the spider droid in half. Without wasting time, he dashed for the train cabin.

As Adam and a now re-appeared Blake sprinted for the conductor's cabin, Locus activated his earpiece.

"Murphy, get your guns ready, they're headed for you." Locus warned while running after Adam and Blake.

"Yeah, I got it. I activated the three-meter door meant for Grimm attacks, so that should buy you and and the spider droid some time to get over here before they bust through." Murphy informed as multiple rifles could be heard being locked and loaded in the background.

"Understood." Locus concluded as he cut out the transmission.

He leapt over to wreckage of his earlier fight. The ground littered with robotic limbs and spent ammunition casings. He jumped from car to car as fast as his legs could carry him.

Jumping over a stack of crates, Locus was suddenly thrown nearly off the train itself when he was slammed into the ground by a distinctive black sword on a string, only a pile of crates to block him.

A fire dust crystal that had been inside a canister in the crates detonated thanks to a well-placed shot from a shotgun. Throwing Locus away from the crates and injuring him even further.

Locus swiftly regained himself and opened up at close range with his shotgun. Unfortunately for Locus, the Faunas in black was faster than him, wrapping the string on her weapon around Locus' foot, she pulled upwards, tripping Locus.

As his shotgun slipped from his hands, Locus quickly went for the pistol on his waist. Without warning, Red appeared from nowhere at stomped on Locus' pistol hand, forcing a shot to off as he kicked it away from Locus' reach.

He swiftly followed up by impaling Locus through his lower torso, his sword piercing right through Locus' armor like paper.

Looking up with near blacked-out vision, he found that the two faunas intruders had not retreated, and had instead set up an ambush. Locus mentally berated himself for not seeing the trap. Calmly, the one in black walked up to Locus and bluntly kicked him in the face, forcing him to black out.

"Did you kill him yet?" The impatient voice of Red asked.

"Yes, he's done for." Black replied.

The last thing Locus saw before he blacked out was the slightest hint of regret in the girl's eyes.

* * *

Locus coughed violently as he came to. His head was spinning like a merry-go-round. Eventually Locus fully woke up and realized where he was.

Wasting no time Locus grabbed his shotgun off the ground and ran as fast as he could to the front of train. Along the way he could see the remains of many security droids that had been sliced limb from robotic limb.

On the way to the cabin Locus spotted the bisected remains of the spider droid that Santa had once been in. Now nothing but a husk of steel and electronics.

Locus hesitated for a moment as he realized he had forgotten about Santa.

"I am right before you. I created a backup of myself in your armor system." Santa piped in, literally reading Locus' thoughts.

Finally, as he arrived at the front of the train, he could hear the clatter of a pistol as it fell to the ground, followed by the sickening shkultch of a blade being pulled away from flesh.

Locus remained undetected as he walked into the cabin, courtesy of his invisibility.

He immediately saw four things that explained everything that happened while he had been knocked out.

The three meter thick door had been blown off and was cut apart.

Black had a look of pure shock and horror on her face.

Every conductor in the cabin was dead, cut apart violently.

And Adam and his blade were soaked in blood.

"Adam...Why?" Blake asked, voice quivering.

"Because they're human. Why are you surprised? You knew what I was going to do when I saw these filthy humans." Adam replied in an eerily calm tone.

"But you didn't need to kill them!" Blake burst out.

Without giving them warning or quarter, Locus opened fire on Adam at point-blank range with his shotgun. Even though his aura absorbed the initial blow, it did knock him off his feet.

He rolled backwards while regaining his balance and unsheathed his red blade in less than a heartbeat. Locus shot again, but this time he blocked it, absorbing the energy into his body.

Without missing a beat he used the energy to throw himself across the cabin over to me at speeds almost too fast to see. Locus pumped and aimed his shotgun for a third shot.

Too late.

 **SHKULTCH**

Losing feeling in his entire upper body, Locus dropped his shotgun. As it clattered to the ground, he looked down to see Adam had impaled Locus with his sword.

Almost immediately, he pulled it back out without mercy. Blood spurted down Locus' armor slowly and painfully. He fell to his knees, and for the second time that day, began to black out.

Adam walked over and undid the magnetic latch on Locus' helmet, throwing it away to reveal his face. Without hesitation he raised his blade over his head, preparing to decapitate the mercenary.

"Adam! Wait!" Black screamed.

Adam looked over to Black, hesitating for a moment.

"We should... We should set the charges first. That's why we came here right?" She stifled out.

He paused before lowering his sword slowly, sheathing it.

"Yeah...Your right. Come on, we need to hurry this up before we arrives at the train yards. " He agreed.

He continued "Besides, your not much of a challenge, I could easily kill you if I wanted to." He hissed to the sage-colored mercenary

He got off of his knee, beckoning Blake to come with him. However he received no response. He turned his head to where Blake was standing just a moment ago.

She was gone.

Adam glanced toward where Locus had been

He was gone to.

Gritting his teeth in rage, Adam dashed toward the back of back of the train cabin.

As he arrived at the back of the train, Adam stood there as Blake cut the train car, Locus' unconscious body laying next to her.

"Goodbye." She said solemnly before she cut the connector, abandoning her ex-partner on an empty train cabin.

Adam could only watch as the train car rolled away with his ex-partner alongside a human.

Blake took one last sorrowful glance at the mercenary before she dissapeared to the back of train.

 **Bet you guys didn't expect a second chapter so soon didn't you? I think I'm actually starting to enjoy writing fanfiction again. Who knows, maybe I'll even make a third chapter soon enough.**

 **UPDATE: Ok so it turns it out I have a lot and I mean A LOT of stuff going on right now, so chapter three probably won't be up for a while. Also, today is my birthday, yay me.**

 **EDIT: REVISED AND REWRITTEN AS OF JUNE 30th 2016  
**

 ***CHAPTER END***


	3. Chapter 2: Failure

**Chapter 2: Failure**

The mission was a failure.

The train car that the faunas "Blake" had cut was the one that contained the majority of the dust on the train.

The security droids had been eliminated, along with the human crew to. Adam's doing.

And to top it all off, it had cost Mr. Schnee over 450 _million_ lien. Not to mention that the incident had caused the public to question how secure their dust shipments truly were.

Needless to say, Winter was furious.

"THEY DID WHAT?!" Ms. Schnee boomed, slamming her fist on the table with unkempt rage.

"They captured the majority of the dust, sir." Locus replied in a collected voice.

"450 million lien! 450 _million_! My father paid _that_ much to establish that train as a mobile fortress! And for what in return? A single train car containing a mercenary who can't do his job, as well as several dead conductors! Does that not mean anything to you?!" Schnee challenged, seething in anger.

"I'm sorry that I failed you, sir. I understand if you refuse to pay me."

"Why in Oum's name _would_ I pay you!?" She barked.

She took a moment to collect herself before he continued. "Hmmm, alright...I may still have a use for you, Locus."

"And what would that be, sir?" He asked inquisitively.

"I want you to guard my sister as she performs at the Adderail concert hall." Schnee replied, collecting a set of relevant and informative documents for the mercenary.

"Will I be the only one guarding her?" Locus asked.

"No, because of your recent failure, I've sent two other mercenaries. Pershing, and a new one, Dutch, to assist you should the need arise." Schnee explained.

"When is the concert?'

"Tonight."

"Then I will guard her, sir." Locus obeyed instinctively, clasping around the documents Winter handed him via a re-purposed droid.

"Ah, but it's not that simple. You can fight without aura. However you clearly can't fight a prolonged battle. Here." She pointed out, handing Locus a glowing circuit card with the Schnee crest embedded in it.

"What is this?" Locus wondered aloud, turning the card over and around as he inspected it.

"It's data only works specifically on designated Schnee property electronics only. It contains a beacon for Alex Parish to find you via CCT. She's the resident aura professor and expert at Beacon Academy. Few others in Remnant can match her skill with the use of aura." The Atlesian specialist explained.

"What is Aura, sir?" Locus asked.

"Aura is the manifestation of one's soul. You can unlock it through years of training and meditating, or you can have someone else unlock it for you. The second method is much more common than the first." Winter revealed.

"And this...Parish? She can unlock my aura?" He asked curiously.

"Indeed she can." Schnee confirmed.

"So what should I do now?" Locus asked.

"You wait. It's a Beacon. Parish will come to you. Or perhaps you're a man of action who's not used to sitting around?" Schnee hummed.

Locus only stared back at Schnee in his hospital bed. Though he couldn't admit that he was wrong. Winter did have the natural ability to read a person like a book, after all.

Shortly thereafter the transmission cut out, leaving Locus alone in a solitary white hospital room. The call was the first thing he had done when he woke up. Slowly he remembered what had happened.

Adam had stabbed him. Shortly after he could hear the cargo sector being disconnected. After fifteen minutes the train had made an automatic stop where SDC guards had stormed aboard, clearing the cabin.

"Jeez captain, looks like something out something you'd find in the Great War holodisks." One of the soldiers remarked.

"Shut it, and keep your eyes open. We still don't know if there's still White Fang operatives on board this wreck." The captain silenced.

Almost immediately after the soldier cleared the car, a pair a of what seemed to be medical personnel rushed in after them.

"Hey! We got a survivor here!" The closest medic called out.

Two of the soldiers from the storming party returned to the first car to escort the medics. As they put me on the stretcher, I tried to move.

"Hey hey. It's alright. You look pretty banged up. You should get some rest." One of the medics suggested.

And that was when Locus fell asleep, only to wake up in this room hours later.

Without anything else to do, the mercenary sat there, waiting in his hospital bed. Attached to him were a series of tubes and wires which ran all over his body, constantly beeping and measuring his vital signs.

It felt like time was getting faster and faster for him. The sun dashing across the sky and the moon quickly took it's place.

Minutes turned to hours. Hours to days. Days to weeks. Then on to months, years, centuries...

 **KNOCK**

 **KNOCK**

 **KNOCK**

At least that's what it felt like to Locus before he was rudely awakened.

"May I come in?" A lightly french accented voice sounded from outside.

"Yes." Locus replied instinctively.

Shortly after, a slightly tall woman in an orange and white overcoat and professor glasses stepped into Locus' room. Her professor style glasses sending a slight reflection of himself back to him.

She bounced over to his side and pulled up a chair.

"I'm Alex Parish. It's nice to meet you Mr..." She introduced in a overenthusiastic tone.

"Locus." He replied.

"Locus who?" She asked.

"Just Locus." He repeated.

"Well anyways. Mr. Schnee has paid me quite a handsome sum to unlock your aura, Locus." Parish informed him.

"Please hold on to my hand. Gently please." She commanded.

Obeying, Locus stuck out his left hand, grabbing on to her own hand, closing her eyes calmly.

 _"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death."  
_ She began. Slowly, a glowing aura formed around Locus. A Greenish-Gray enveloping his entire body.

 _"I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee."_ She concluded. As soon as she said this, the aura glowing around Locus began to dim. _  
_

"Did you just..." Locus asked, stunned at what had just happened.

"Yes. I unlocked your aura and semblance." She confirmed.

"How do I use them?" He asked almost anxiously.

"Your aura is activated subconsciously when you need it. Aura is regenerated over time. It renews even faster when you sleep or meditate. However, meditating takes practice to use effectively." She informed.

"And my semblance?"

"Well, you haven't _exactly_ unlocked your semblance yet. You see, I only have the ability to unlock your aura, which protects you, I don't have the ability to actually grant you your semblance immediately, I just give you the chance to do it yourself." She explained.

"Then how do I unlock it?" Locus asked, slightly impatient.

"Simple, by using your aura and training with it. The more you train with it, the more likely it is for you to realise your semblance." Parish informed.

Suddenly, Locus felt all of the aches and pains from the train attack just fade away. Stunned, Locus checked his body to find that the stab wounds from Adam's sword were gone.

"That's your aura kicking in." Parish stated in a playful tone.

"So what now?" He asked.

"Now? Now I disappeared back into the fortress that is Beacon Academy, You go on your merry way, and we never see each other again...probably." She stated in a melodramatically sad tone.

"Alright then." Locus replied, not interested at all in her melodrama.

Parish was slightly taken aback at his bluntness, but quickly recollected herself.

"Well, it's been nice knowing you, have a good day!" She quickly stated before zooming out the door, and out of sight, never to be seen again.

Shortly after she left, Locus rose from his hospital bed. Without hesitation, he disconnected all the tubes and wires that were monitoring his vitals. He fruitlessly searched the room for his armor and weapons but did not find any.

He decided to change out of his medical shirt and into some casual pants and a T-shirt that had been neatly folded next to his bed.

Without warning, three medical personnel burst into the room. Only to spot Locus standing there, just fine.

"What's going on?" Locus questioned, confused.

"We thought you just died. Your heart rate monitor just went flat. You need to warn us before you do that." One doctor explained.

"Don't worry about that, I won't be coming back here." Locus replied

"Why's that?" The youngest doctor asked.

"Because I won't _need_ to." He concluded before walking out the door.

* * *

When I walked out the door, the first thing I noticed was how peaceful the scenery and surroundings were. I hadn't had time to notice it before.

The second thing I noticed was a van with that trademark Schnee crest painted to the side, with a familiar face leaning against it.

"Howya doin?" Pershing asked whilst smoking a cigar.

"What are you doing here?" I asked curiously .

"Well last I checked, you were in a hospital, not a military base. So I think it makes sense that they made me keep your stuff out here." Pershing explained.

"You have my stuff?" I checked.

"Yeah, it's all right here." Pershing confirmed. He removed the cigar from his mouth before opening the rear doors of the van, revealing my armor neatly laid out with all of my weapons next to it.

"Schnee told me about what happened on the train. Sounds pretty fucked up from what I heard." Pershing said sympathetically.

I only grunted ambiguously and looked down in response.

"Yeah, don't worry. After this last job, I know a place where you can shove your sorrows down the bottom of a bottle, yeah?" Pershing said, attempting to cheer me up.

"What are you talking about?" I asked suspiciously.

"You know, a bar." Pershing explained.

"A _bar_?" I asked in a questionable tone.

"Yeah, a bar. Have you even been to one?" Pershing asked.

"Not my style." I replied sternly.

"Well it will be after we wrap up this babysitting guard duty for Schnee's daughter." Pershing replied as he stepped into the driver's seat of the van.

"Well come on then! I'll take you to my little safe house on the south side of Vale." Pershing offered before starting the engine.

I hesitantly stepped inside as well. Instinct dictated that I keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Meanwhile Pershing was driving in a very calm and civilian manner, completely carefree of any possible risks.

"You seem a little tense there, mate. Something wrong?" Pershing asked.

"No. Nothing's wrong." I replied quickly.

"Alright, if you say so." He replied in a unconvinced tone.

Pershing pulled up to a nearly vacant parking lot with garbage littering the ground. In front of the lot itself was a stubby, old, and seemingly abandoned warehouse.

"Alright here we are." Pershing announced.

" _This_ is your safehouse?" I asked.

"I know it doesn't look like much, but never judge a book by its cover. It's the inside of it that counts." Pershing admitted.

He swiftly got out of the van and walked over to a keypad. He tapped in some numbers, and the garage door right beside him began to open up. After driving the van inside the warehouse, the two mercenaries made their way inside.

The walls on the inside were painted a dreary gray, with sparse furniture spread around the warehouse. However, immediately after walking into the warehouse, I spotted enough equipment to arm an entire military outpost.

"I know, it's not much from the inside either, but at least I got these to help me sleep at night." Pershing admitted as he pressed a button near his bed. Immediately as he pressed it, sentry guns popped out from the roof and walls.

A single question popped into my mind, one only a civilian could _really_ ask.

"Why all the weaponry? Someone like you seems to be more oriented to...furniture." I reminded.

"Well if someone with any funny ideas and a big gun ever found out about this place then decided to burn it down, well at least there wouldn't be any perfectly good furniture inside for em to burn." Pershing answered nonchalantly.

"Do you really need this much weaponry?" I pointed out.

"Well yeah. They're just weapons though, we can always make new ones, and no one's gonna miss these." Pershing replied.

"But there is one thing I plan on keeping around..." He revealed. Slowly he walked over to a car sized object with a large tarp covering it. He whisked away the tarp to reveal an huge armored vehicle. It was covered with sloped armor plating all around its chassis, with an hatch on the top of the vehicle.

An armored van

"Is this military gear?" I questioned.

"Well not quite. You wanna know how I got it though?" He replied

"Do I want to know?" I replied, looking over to him and cocking an eyebrow.

"I got it at a garage sale." He said matter of factually.

"A garage sale?"

"A garage that just so happened to be owned by a very rich and very paranoid man who thought that someone was planning to kill him." He explained.

Pershing chuckled in a dark tone.

"And the old bastard was right to, because he didn't know that person was me." He chuckled darkly.

"Anyways, this looks more like a 4x4 rover than a van. Vale "Quick Response Forces" used to use these for operations normal police couldn't handle. At least they used to before this model of armored van got rotated out for newer Atlas-made versions." Pershing said, taking on an almost storyteller like tone.

"So what do you plan to do with it?" I wondered.

"Well in the _metaphorical_ scenario that the concert hall were to be attacked, then we would lead Ms. Schnee to this vehicle waiting out back and use it as a getaway car." Pershing planned. "And that's where you come in, Locus."

I looked to Pershing as he put the tarp back over the armored car. "And what's that?" I asked.

"You're going to be the gunner. Hope you know how to use that sniper rifle of yours." He revealed whilst opening the top hatch on the car.

"That won't be a problem. You're planning for problems already." He stated more than asked, wondering if the faunas paranoia was well deserved.

"It have to. Otherwise I lose my job and my life. If I lose my life, so do others." He joked.

"Right." I responded, not _particularly_ amused by his warped sense of humor.

"Oh, and one more thing." Pershing said, stopping in place.

"I named this thing "The Albatross'."

* * *

"Come on, we need to meet the security chief at Adderail, and we need to meet our new contact, we're not the only ones guarding Schnee's daughter." Pershing reminded.

Quickly, the two climbed into the tank on wheels that was the Albatross. The journey to Adderail concert hall was slow and dreary due to bad traffic and the fact that Adderail was all the way on the other side of town.

Pulling up into the smooth tile parking lot, the two mercenaries noticed that their armored car immediately stuck out like a sore thumb amidst the sports cars and luxury limousines owned by the patron's of the concert hall who were attending that night.

This caused more than a few suspicious and concerned glances from the people there.

"Don't worry about them, once we explain why we're here, they'll get it. I hope." Pershing pointed out.

As the Albatross pulled around to the side of the building, a rich patron rolled around to the side of the Albatross.

"You can't park here, I need this parking spot, you idiot!" He scolded the mercenaries.

"Sorry sir, but we're security, we need to park here in case something happens." Pershing explained.

"I don't care you faunas piece of trash! Get out of here before I call the actual security!" He shouted in bigotry and anger.

"Alright, fine. Park your car here. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, sir." Pershing replied in an overly polite voice.

"You'd better be." He shot back.

Immediately after, Pershing pulled the Albatross around back to a dirty and soggy spot. The two mercenaries hopped out of their armored car to enter the concert hall.

"Pershing?" Locus asked his companion.

"What?"

"Why did you let him treat you like trash?"

"Ah don't worry about it. If a situation happens I guarantee he'll regret it." Pershing answered jokingly.

Without warning, the backdoor to the concert hall slammed open to reveal a huge beast of a man at least seven feet tall wielding an autocannon.

Locus' first instinct was to go for the SAW on his back, but Pershing quickly stepped between the two to avoid a firefight.

"Hey Hey! Wouldn't want to shoot our own operatives, would we lads?" Pershing asked sarcastically.

"Locus, this is Dutch. Dutch, Locus." Pershing explained.

At this sudden revelation, Locus lowered his SAW slightly as Dutch did the same.

"Hrggh. Tiny puny little man." Dutch commented.

"Don't test your luck, brute." Locus quickly shot back.

"NRGHHG!" Dutch snarled, quickly pulling back up his autocannon as Locus did the same with his SAW while backing up.

"Hey! Dutch! We have a job! Don't mess it up before it even begins, please?" Pershing reminded the beast of a man before turning to Locus.

"And Locus, please don't piss off the Goliath with the 30 millimetere autcannon? Ok?" Pershing warned.

Despite their immediate and obvious differences, both knew that Pershing had a good point, and lowered their weapons.

"Alright, now that we're not all trying to kill each other over some misunderstanding, let's go over the final mission briefing. I'm only gonna say this once, so listen up." He began.

"Dutch, you're going to be on the first floor behind the stage, make sure that no one tries to come in from there." Pershing commanded.

"Hrgghh. Sure." He agreed.

"Locus, you'll be on the support girders on the second floor, keep an eye out for someone suspicious in the crowd" He continued.

"Understood."

"As for me, I'll be guarding the backdoor and maintenance hall in case he have to evacuate Ms. Schnee." Pershing informed.

"What about the sports car blocking the way?" Locus asked, concerned.

"What about it?" Pershing replied with a devilish grin.

"HAHAHAHA. This is why I like little man with ears!" Dutch announced.

"You two good? Let's go, then." He beckoned.

The three mercenaries twisted the door open to reveal a group of people wearing body armor with the word "security" marked on the front plate.

"You know what to do?" He asked their leader, marked by the words that said "security chief" in yellow.

"I don't think the White Fang is stupid enough to attack here, but hey, it ain't my money. Don't worry, we got this." The security chief reassured.

"I hope your right." Pershing said before leaving.

"Oh, one more thing before you go." The chief said, handing each of them earpieces.

"To keep in touch." He ended.

Immediately after, each respective mercenary split up to patrol their own sector of the concert hall. Minutes later, Weiss herself finally showed up on stage wearing a short but elegant dress.

"Ladies and gentlemen. Please welcome: Weiss Schnee." A voice announced.

She began singing the song she had scheduled and practiced months earlier, Mirror Mirror.

 _Mirror, tell me something, tell me who's the loneliest of all?_

 _Mirror, tell me something, tell me who's the loneliest of all?_

"Everything good so far, keep an eye out."

 _Fear of whats inside of me; tell me can a heart be turned to stone?_

 _Mirror, mirror, whats behind you? save me from the things i see._

"Woah woah woah, Thermal cam just picked up some heat signatures on the east wall."

"How many?"

 _I can keep it from the world, why won't you let me hide from me?_

"At least 30 of 'em. All guards be advised, we have highly suspicious movement on the eastern wall. I can see two of them carrying duffle bags."

"What is in the duffle bags?"

 _Mirror, mirror, tell me something- who's the loneliest of all?_

As the suspicious group neared the wall of the concert hall itself, the two carrying duffle bags suddenly threw them at the wall, and the entire group retreated to the gate.

"They just threw the bags at the wall!"

As the security chief zoomed in on the now un-zipped duffle bags, he spotted the one thing he hoped weren't going to be in there.

"THERE ARE EXPLOSIVES IN THE BAGS!" The chief yelled.

 _I'm the loneliest of all_

As soon as Ms. Schnee sang the last verse, the leader of the suspicious group pressed the detonator from a safe distance.

And then all hell broke loose.

 **OK! End of the chapter!  
**

 **First and foremost, I want to give a huge shout out to my new beta reader: aoj95**

 **After much thought and discussion with aoj, I have decided a very well thought out plan for how I want this story to go, which means that I will be submitting chapters more often considering that my summer programming classes don't interfere to much  
**

 **I will not be working on any chapters for an entire week next week due to the fact that I am going on a no-internet summer camp (somewhere in America, that's all I will say.)**

 **If anyone is willing to make cover art for this story, submit it to me. I will use any and all cover art, so don't worry.**

 **Also points to anyone who can find both easter eggs in this chapter (one is easy to find, the other is very hard)**

 **Lastly, I want to thank everyone who submitted an OC, (you guys know who you are) you helped me figure out what I want for this story and what people to use in it.**

 **No Pyrocynical style humor today guys, enjoy the chapter.**

 **EDIT: REWRITTEN AS OF JUNE 27 2016**

 ***CHAPTER END***


	4. Chapter 3: Extraction Plan

**BETA READ BY: Trusty McGoodyGuy (It's still aoj95, but he just changed his name.)**

 **Chapter 3: Extraction Plan**

"Multiple contacts at the east gate!"

"Who's shooting at us!? Is it White Fang?"

"He's dead! Ramose is dead!"

The moment the explosives had been set off on the east wall, the intercom had blown up with radio chatter, which was itself almost drowned out by the screaming of frightened civilians. Everyone on it trying to figure out who had survived, and who was dead.

Up on the stage, Weiss had been knocked back a few feet by the explosion. Everyone that was sitting within 10 feet of the east wall was either dead or severely injured.

As he watched the surviving security guards regroup, and begin escorting what remained of the audience to the parking lot, Locus began to move along the roof of the stadium, his magnetic gravity boots holding him up with ease.

His training and experience had kicked in, and he'd started scanning through the smoke below him, looking out for any survivors, _or threats_.

 **BANG** **BANG BANG**

As the smoke cleared, a burst of gunshots silenced everyone in the room, followed by the gruff voice of a lion faunas in a Grimm mask that covered his entire face, as opposed to his subordinates. A White Fang Lieutenant.

"Listen up you filthy human scum! We only want the girl! If any of you tries to play the hero? Then none of you will escape!" He announced.

By now the rest of the White Fang had surrounded the audience, and held the guns ready and waiting to fire. With no other option, the security guards surrendered in the face of two to one odds.

As the White Fang operatives stormed into the building, a dull red glow on Locus' HUD alerted him to the presence of Santa.

"I have formed a plan." The construct stated.

"Put it on my HUD." Locus commanded.

The lion faunas scanned the air using his sense of smell. It didn't take him long as he quickly identified the scent he was looking for.

The scent of his target.

Weiss Schnee was getting up from the blast slowly, letting out a groan of pain as she rose. Her ears were still ringing from the explosion, and she was dazedly looking around to see just what was going on.

From the debris, she could make out a large figure rushing towards her. As the figure broke through the line of smoke, Weiss' expression of confusion quickly turned to one of horror.

It was the White Fang Lieutenant _rushing_ at her, quickly followed through the smoke by the other White Fang operatives.

Weiss instinctively attempted to summon a speed glyph to escape from the reaches of the White Fang. However, before she could finish, she was kicked to the ground by the White Fang Lieutenant.

As Weiss glanced back, she saw the White Fang Lieutenant calmly walking up to her. Once he neared her still dazed form, he reached down to grab her.

 **CRACK**

 **CRACK  
**

He flinched as two sniper rounds caused a dull pain in his back. His aura saving him from any real damage, he scanned the room wondering where the shots came from.

Suddenly, the Lieutenant spotted two mercenaries, appear from behind a side door. Without warning they opened fire on the White Fang operators. An unlucky White Fang was gunned down without a chance to react, his aura keeping him alive but knocked out.

The remaining White Fang instantly dived behind whatever cover they could find as the civilians darted for the exits away from the crossfire. The two mercenaries as well as the remaining security guards opened fire on the White Fang.

As the Lieutenant looked back on his prey, he only found the empty stage instead. Amidst the confusion, the girl had slipped out of his senses. The Lieutenant mentally berated himself before drawing his chainsword.

Without warning, a strange whooshing sound could be heard, and a bright cyan light radiated from the ceiling. With barely enough time to get out of the way, Locus stabbed the spot where the lieutenant had been standing a mere moment ago, piercing through the ground beneath him.

Charging at Locus with his weapon in hand, the Lieutenant slashed furiously at the mercenary who had dared to intervene. The attacks were powerful and well-practiced, but they were too slow to hit the sage mercenary, who danced around nimbly avoiding every wide blow.

Another blow came in, and Locus deflected, stepping in close to stab at his chest. It didn't pierce, but it hurt the Lieutenant enough to back off momentarily.

Before the two warriors could converge again, the White Fang Lieutenant was thrown into the air by one of Weiss' glyphs. He landed painfully on his back, and immediately had his chainsword kicked away by Locus, who was on him the moment he left himself vulnerable.

The faunas was not knocked out however, and began to grapple with his assailant, bringing him in close where he could easily gain the advantage with his enormous brute strength.

As the two struggled on the ground, Weiss tried to take aim of her glyphs to finish off the Lieutenant. The two were so close however, that she couldn't get a clear shot without also hitting her apparent defender.

"Get out of the way, you dolt!" Weiss yelled at the sage-colored mercenary.

Turning to face the young Huntress in training, Locus swiftly kicked the Lieutenant in the face with his free boot, sending the faunas stumbling away in pain, and opening him up for a clear shot.

Weiss didn't hesitate as she aimed a line of gravity glyphs straight to the Lieutenant. Using the largest pieces of rubble she could find, she hurtled a salvo of former marble pillars and concrete slabs at the ferocious faunas.

The remains of the stadium smashed into him, and with his aura finally drained, the Lieutenant slumped to the ground in exhaustion and defeat. Locus rushed up to him and slammed the stock of his shotgun into the Lieutenant's face, making sure he _stayed down._

Weiss checked her scroll to find that her aura reserves were quite low from her glyph railgun. By the look of him, that mercenary her father had hired wasn't doing much better.

Looking around, she spotted two more humanoid figures rushing at her from the smoke. Knowing what happened last time, she prepared herself to go against more White Fang operatives.

However what came through the smoke was different than what she expected. Instead of White Fang, she spotted the two other mercenaries rushing at her from out of the smoke instead.

As the smoke dissipated, Weiss could fully make out the two mercenaries. One was a rat faunas in an olive drab shirt and dirty and matted vest with a tie covering it, as well as pitch black sunglasses, a leather watch, and an earpiece.

The other was a brute of a man wearing full body armor everywhere. He looked more like a tank with legs than a mercenary.

Dutch and Pershing.

"Report." Locus ordered.

"We mopped up most of the White Fang. The ones we didn't take care of are already running." Pershing reported.

"Can we go now? I'm hungry!" Dutch announced.

The three other people in the room stared at Dutch with cocked eyebrows and confused expressions. Weiss was the first to break the awkward silence.

" _That's_ what you're worried about now!? Of all things!?" She demanded.

"Yes." Dutch replied with an expressionless face.

Weiss only replied with an exasperated groan whilst pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Dutch?" Pershing asked.

"Yes?

" _After_ the mission."

"Sorry." He replied in his usual scratchy and gruff voice.

Without warning, a secondary explosion rocked the entire concert hall. Locus looked around to see a Dust fuel pipe in the wall light on fire.

"We have to go!" Locus ordered.

The four of them rushed to the nearest exit. The Dust valve behind them detonating soon after, lighting the entire concert hall ablaze.

As they rushed out of the burning building, the entire hall collapsed behind them, knocking all of them off of their feet. They quickly got up and rushed to the Albatross, which had several small scratches and dents in its armor from the hall's explosion.

As the four of them climbed into the Albatross, small arms fire began ricocheting off of the vehicle. A few of the remaining White Fang soldiers had actually regrouped instead of fleeing, and were making a last ditch effort to grab their target, regardless of the security guards who were opening fire on them.

Locus climbed atop the gunner's hatch, sniper rifle in hand. He aimed through his sniper's reticle, and with a few squeezes of the trigger, finally broke the second assault of White Fang as they turned tail and ran.

Immediately after Pershing gunned the engine, ramming through the debris that used to be Adderail concert hall. As they quickly exited what used to be the parking lot of the concert hall, the drove the armored car out onto the main road.

They sped through the deserted road to the rendezvous point that Pershing had been informed of. However, the Faunas mercenary slowed down the Albatross the engine whined in protest.

"Why are we slowing down?" Locus questioned.

"Street's deserted." Pershing answered.

"Well I wouldn't be surprised! The entire concert hall did just explode!" Weiss snapped with mix of frustration, and as much as she were to loath to admit it, slight worry.

"No, I mean... It's far too quiet. Shouldn't there be Police? Firefighters? Huntsmen? Anything here?" Pershing pointed out.

He continued. "If none of them have arrived yet, then that means they must be occupied with something else. Unless...Oh shit."

Without warning a rocket screamed towards the Albatross from a nearby warehouse window, blowing the tires off of the entire left side of the Albatross, as well as throwing the entire vehicle on its side.

"It's an ambush!" Pershing yelled over the din on small arms fire.

Machine gun fire streamed from the abandoned buildings surrounding them. More grenades and rockets hurtled towards the immobile Albatross, hammering away at the armored chassis.

"How did they know we were using this route!?" Weiss yelled over the din of the gunfire.

"I don't know! Someone must have ratted us out!" Pershing replied.

Inside the armored vehicle, the clatter of bullets and explosions hitting the outside was a racket of overpowering noise. Weiss was covering her ears from all the noise.

Suddenly, the small arms fire and explosions abruptly stopped. Slowly, Weiss uncovered her ears as the three mercenaries looked at each other worriedly. Locus activated the thermal imaging in his helmet.

Through the armor of the Albatross, Locus spotted several humanoid shaped heat signatures advancing on the wreckage of the Albatross, as well as some vague heat shapes in the buildings around them.

"They're advancing on us." Locus informed the rest of the crew.

"How many?" Pershing asked.

"Six to the right, five to the left, two on the front and back, plus whoever is still hiding in the buildings." Locus reported.

"I'd guess there's about one machine gun crew in each building for cover, one machine gun crew is equivalent to two people, and an organized attack like this would need a leader, so that's..."

"Roughly 20 hostiles in total, no sign of reinforcements. What's the plan?" Locus asked.

Pershing silently looked around the the space of the Albatross and quickly came up with a solution.

"Dutch is the plan." Pershing answered.

 **CLANG  
**

 **CLANG**

 **CLANG**

"Open up! We know you're mercenaries hired to protect Weiss Schnee! We only want her, so if you surrender now, we will let you go!" The White Fang leader shouted from the outside.

Nobody inside were foolish enough to believe him, and so Pershing didn't hesitate as he turned to their biggest comrade. "Dutch? Do your thing."

Silently nodding, the giant of a man cocked his autocannon. Using his foot as a battering ram, he kicked open what remained of the backdoors of the Albatross, blindly opening fire on the White Fang attackers.

Immediately, two White Fang operatives were gunned down by the giant. While Dutch was letting loose on the faunas attackers, Pershing grabbed Weiss and ran for one of the buildings, with Locus firing his SAW into the windows of the building as cover.

As soon as the pair made it into the abandoned warehouse, Locus began to reload his expended magazine. Immediately after, heavy machine gun fire rattled from one of the open windows at Locus. The mercenary taking cover behind what was left of the Albatross.

Locus tried to activate his invisibility, but received a warning message from Santa on his HUD instead.

 **Warning: Insufficient Power.**

In the past few days, Locus had not had anytime to recharge his equipment, and therefore was on low power. He could still use his suit without power, but not any of his more important equipment, such as his HUD or invisibility.

And that's exactly what he had needed.

Locus quickly tapped into his earpiece.

"Pershing, equipment is low on power. I'm pinned. I need you to clear out those gunners."

"I can't right now, we ran into some guards. Do what you can to clear out that machine gun nest." Pershing replied back.

As the transmission cut out, Locus looked over to Dutch and the other machine gun nest in a two-way slugging match. The tracers of two different heavy weapons ripping through the air at each other.

Dutch was taking hits, but between his armor, his aura, and his sheer physical endurance, Dutch was absorbing everything that came at him and sending just as much firepower back at them.

Through the constant din of rounds hitting the asphalt and armor plating, Locus could make out the muzzle flash through the open window. Locus snatched a grenade off of his belt and lobbed it through the window.

As it clacked off the concrete floor of building, Locus could hear the shouts of terror from inside the machine gun nest, quickly replaced by the detonation of the grenade.

"Thanks, bug man." Dutch commented non-nonchalantly.

"What?" Locus questioned, confused.

"Your name is Locust. Locust is bug, right?" Dutch replied, uncertain.

"Hmph." Locus replied, uninterested.

With the White Fang machine gun nest knocked out, Locus radioed in with Pershing.

"Machine gun nest on the West Side has been knocked out. Report status." Locus asked in a practiced tone.

"Machine gun nest on East Side is knocked out as well. Albatross is totaled, we're gonna need a new extraction plan." Pershing listed.

Suddenly, the voice of the Heiress broke through the comm channel. "My father could send a bullhead to pick us up." She suggested.

"Not enough time to wait for a vehicle, we don't know how many more White Fang could be waiting for us. We're going to have to go on foot." Pershing pointed out.

The four took cover behind the remains of the armored vehicle that used to be the Albatross.

"Well how do we get out of here, now?" Pershing asked the rest of the crew.

After looking around the immediate area, Dutch of all people was the first one to come up with a plan.

"What about the sewers?" The giant suggested.

"Are you brain-dead? We can't go there!" Weiss scolded.

"Why not?" Dutch reasoned.

"Because it's filthy in there! Do you have any idea how many germs there are in a sewer? Not only that, but these are my favorite clothes, and-" She listed off before she was interrupted.

"No time, White Fang reinforcements should be here any minute. Let's go!" Pershing commanded before pulling off a manhole cover.

"But!-" The heiress retorted. Her words died in her throat as she was pulled to the open manhole. To her chagrin, the sewer was exactly as she had imagined it.

Pershing went first, followed by a disgusted Weiss, with Dutch and Locus following up behind.

"Are you sure there isn't a cleaner route we could take?" Weiss asked while covering her nose.

"Cleaner? Sure. Safer? No." Pershing answered while wading through the sewer water.

As the heiress was trying her best to keep as clean as possible, the trio of mercenaries waded through the sludge unfazed.

"Hey Locus, what are you going to do with your cut of the cash?" Pershing asked playfully.

"I'm not sure." The Sage Sniper replied.

"What about you, Dutch?"

"Buy some steak." He replied.

"Ehhhh. You two don't know how to enjoy the expensive things in life." Pershing dismissed carelessly.

Finally, Pershing stopped the crew at a manhole that seemed to be well kept instead of rusty and worn-out. He climbed up at quickly popped it open, signaling the rest to follow.

As the four popped out of the sewers, they were quickly greeted by a blinding white light, as well as the sound of clacking rifles and shotguns.

"Identify yourselves!" An authoritarian voice commanded.

"Weiss Schnee!" The heiress quickly responded. A few seconds later the bright light was turned off.

"Who are they?" The voice asked.

"The mercenaries that I assume my father hired to protect me." Weiss replied nonchalantly.

"Names?" The commander of the SDC guards asked, looking to the mercenaries.

"Corbeau Pershing."

"I Am The Dutch."

"Locus."

After checking through a list on his scroll, the SDC commander waved them through.

"Alright you're good, head on in. Ms. Schnee is waiting for you inside." The commander motioned.

As the crew gained their bearings, the found themselves in the courtyard of an old oceanfront warehouse next to a large cargo dock.

The SDC personnel ushered the four of them inside where they found Winter Schnee with an SDC bodyguard on either side of her.

"Winter?" Weiss asked, surprised.

"Surprised to see me away from the constant military affairs of Atlas? We're in a time of peace, so it's not surprising that I would end up having some off-duty time." She responded.

Weiss simply lowered her head at her sister's response.

"Excellent job, the three of you. A bonus for keeping my sister safe against all odds." Winter commended the mercenaries whilst handing each of them multiple large stacks of lien.

Just as Winter was about to hand Locus his share of the money, she abruptly pulled it away from his grasp.

"Consider this as paying off your debt for your earlier failure." She explained before pocketing the money in her desk's drawer. Shortly thereafter she dismissed the mercenaries, as well as her sister.

As the four were leaving the building, Weiss walked up to Locus with a large stack of Lien in her hand. She handed Locus to stack of Lien.

"What is this?" The Sage mercenary asked.

"I know my sister can be a bit cold at times, but I figure that it's fair you get paid for saving my life. Don't get used to it though, I'm only paying you because you saved my life." She explained, walking away immediately after.

"Hey Locus, You still want to go to that bar?" Pershing asked him.

"No, I need to rest. I'll see you tomorrow." Locus replied.

"Whatever, just meet me at Junior's nightclub tomorrow night, they're having a huge dance-fest there. You'll love it, trust me." Pershing concluded, walking away.

Locus sighed as he pocketed his pay from the night's job, looking up at the broken moon, as well as the stars the surrounded it. He turned his head to see a sign for an oceanfront motel. Locus removed his helmet, carrying it on one side before muttering something to himself.

"I hate nightclubs."

 **Whoa whoa WHOA. Torches and pitchforks down please. I know it took me more than half a month to finally squeeze this chapter out. But I have delayed the working on this chapter for three reasons**

 **1\. 33% busy with programming classes.**

 **2\. 33% planning out more key points of the story with Trusty McGoodyGuy, which meant that I had to re-read and re-write most of the chapter.**

 **3\. 33% I procrastinated like the pleeb I am.**

 **4\. And 1%...uh I dunno.**

 **In other news... RWBY volume 4 trailer got released. It was AMAZING. And so were the two new episodes of RvB starring Locus and Felix (And that Sirus guy. Might include him later in Locus' backstory.) So I have had a good day.**

 **EDIT: I CHANGED ALL OF SCHEE'S LINES TO WINTER'S LINES**

 **Also want to give a HUUUUGE shoutout to Trusty McGoodyGuy. He's the one who's helped me more than anyone else on this story.**

 **On top of that he also made most of the fight scenes in this, not me, so go ahead and check him out. Give him some love.**

 **BUT**

 **Before you leave this story, I would REEAAALLLY appreciate it if you could review. Seriously, reading your reviews is my favorite thing to do on fanfiction next to reading my favorite fanfics and writing my own.**

 **So please, review to your heart's content. Even criticizing reviews make me happy.**

 **So that's it for now guys, see you in the next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 4: Logistical Issues

**Beta Read by: Trusty McGoodyGuy**

 **Chapter 4: Logistical Issues**

Nightclubs.

Locus despised them. All they ever had to offer was loud music, overpriced beverages, and cheap women. There was never any objective to them either, no order, no discipline.

Yet, the only ally he could find while he was stranded on this rock had invited him to one. He had run one mission in a nightclub a few years ago, one that Locus remembered very vividly.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard the gasps and murmurs of multiple people around him.

A quick check of his surroundings revealed that he was in the lobby of the oceanfront motel. He must have found his way here while he was lost in thought. The other patrons in the lobby quickly took notice to his armor and the weapons strapped to his back.

"Uhhh... You're not here to start trouble, are you?" The front desk attendant asked nervously.

"I need a room." Locus responded, placing a stack of lien on the counter.

"C-Could you leave your guns at the front desk? Everyone here's a little nervous since you walked in." The attendant responded.

"Just get me a room." Locus replied, clearly not trusting the motel staff to keep his weapons safe.

The person serving him was young, and obviously intimidated by his militaristic appearance. His eyes darted around, full of uncertainty, knowing that he should probably call his manager, or more appropriately, the police.

Wanting to avoid trouble, Locus tossed a few extra cards of lien towards him, separate from the room pay, to which the boy hesitantly accepted.

"Uh, y-yeah sure. Anything you need. Gimme a second to get your key, sir." The attendant agreed cautiously.

Quickly grabbing the closest vacant key he could find. The attendant led the mercenary to his temporary housing. The key the attendant grabbed had been reserved for someone else that had never shown up.

Charging his equipment in the wall socket as he retired to his newfound quarters, Locus removed his armor until he was down to only the nano-filament material suit underneath his armor. To suit his civilian-rich environment, Locus decided to switch to the civilian attire provided to him earlier by Pershing.

His replacement garb consisted of a simple dull green shirt, jacket and grey trousers. However, inside the carry bag Pershing gave him contained something else. It was a small box with a note on it.

 _"A reminder that we_ _will_ _be doing business again in the future. For now, just think of it as a gift."_

A gift from Pershing? Locus' time in the UNSC had taught him a valuable lesson about closed boxes. However, the message was non-threatening, and Pershing had proved to be a valuable ally in the past few days. Regardless though...

"Santa, I need you to scan this box for me."

The red hologram of the Sangheili flashed into sight, hovering in the air just a short distance from where he had set down his armor.

"Scanning. Do you believe this Pershing would be one to try and kill you?"

The questioned wasn't unwarranted, though Locus suspected that the AI hadn't asked out of a sense of paranoia. Rather, it seemed her was curious as to his own opinion on the matter.

"I don't know, but it's certainly a possibility. Freelancers and mercenaries are driven by money, money which was split even further when I signed on for the job. I don't know enough about him to rule out potential motives."

The AI stared at him curiously in silence, before turning back to the box that Locus had left on the table. "Scan complete. You'll be pleased to know that I haven't found any explosives or other ways it may have been tampered with."

Locus nodded in acknowledgement and the alien winked out of sight. He opened the box cautiously, regardless. He relaxed when he saw what was inside of it.

A Scroll. At least that was the name of it. Made in Atlas. From what Locus could tell it was some sort of mobile device.

It appeared to be inexpensive, but decent in make, and a perfected fit in his pocket. If there had been any malicious listening devices embedded inside of it, there was no doubt that Santa would have detected them, so he quickly dismissed his skepticism and paranoia over the gift. It was just that, a gift.

Just how long had it been since he'd been given one...?

Locus didn't bother checking the room itself for listening devices. The motel was one he had randomly chosen, as was the room. There was no way someone could have planted a device in advance. Nor was the motel so _cheap_ that it would actually be spying on its guests.

There wasn't much to his room beyond the kitchen/ living room combo, with a tiny bathroom off to the side, so he pulled out the sofa bed and laid out his gear. It was something as dull as it was important, even more so than usual considering his current situation. Inventory.

His SAW was first up, and he wasn't very surprised to find that he was quite low on ammunition for his primary weapon. With only one full and one partial magazine left, he would possibly have to ditch the SAW altogether, if he couldn't acquire more ammo soon.

The ammo situation with his shotgun and sniper rifle was better, though not by much. With only a marginally larger ammo reserve to supply his other weapons, he couldn't rely on them to carry a fight for very long, especially when most he of the enemies he encountered had "aura."

 **CLICK**

Shotgun in hand, Locus snapped to face the source of the noise, only to find nothing there.

The glow of crimson signaled that Santa was active.

"Threat analysis." Locus commanded, his gaze unwavering.

"There is no threat, I simply implanted myself into this 'Scroll.'"

Slowly lowering his shotgun and setting it on the table, he sighed as he realized how much of a mental toll his mercenary lifestyle had taken on him.

"Hmmm, interesting." Santa commented.

"What is it?" Locus questioned.

"This Scroll appears to be connected to a worldwide network of other technology and devices. It's primitive, however I do not believe this will cause much difficulty."

After a moment of pause, the Construct spoke again.

"Receive your rest, warrior. We will be leaving in the morning."

"Where?"

"To a place these humans call, 'The CCT.'"

* * *

"Tell me Qrow, do you prefer tea or coffee?"

"If you throw some whiskey in it, then coffee. Otherwise I'll stick with my own Oz, thanks."

"It was only a joke. I'm well aware of your…preference."

"'Scuse me old man, but I thought jokes were supposed to be funny."

 **BEEP**

 **BEEP**

 **BEEP**

A quick check of his scroll revealed to Qrow the one thing that his secret circle had been fearing of the most.

"Oz. Some sort of entity just popped up on the CCT network. It's more advanced than anything I've seen before." Qrow revealed, an edge of worry in his voice betraying his normally iron-clad confidence.

"Hmm. I supposed it was only a matter of time. The Queen I assume?" Ozpin asked, concerned.

"No. Not so far as they can tell." Qrows' eyes moved from the screen and locked onto Ozpins. "The techies think it's someone new."

At this new revelation, Ozpin cocked an eyebrow. Was it possible that a third party was in play? Not a farfetched idea, considering that there were more than one party after the maiden's power in the past.

"Trace the source of entity." The older of the two commanded.

"They're already on it, but..." Qrow paused.

While Qrow was furiously tapping away at his Scroll to receive an update from the CCTS staff, Ozpin was already making an emergency group call to the other members of the circle.

"Ozpin this had better be important; do you have any idea what time it is?" A female voice on the other end of the phone berated.

"The CCTS network has just been hacked, we're attempting to track it as we speak however…" Ozpin looked over to Qrow for any news, who shook his head with frustration. "It is proving difficult. I need you at the tower immediately." Ozpin informed.

"I'm on my way." A male voice in the group call assured before hanging up.

* * *

Long before the dawn's light burst through the cheap curtains attached to the window, Locus had already awoken, Santa had made sure of that.

Stowing his armor and weapons away in various hidden locations, minus his energy sword and his scroll, Locus set out for the new world. Remnant, as the people he met had called it.

Locking the door behind him, Locus heard a gasp just down the hall.

Two young Faunas children were playing tag in the hall when they stopped to look at the intimidating mercenary. Immediately, their mother fearfully herded them back into the hotel room.

Locus simply waved the mother off as being protective of her children.

Casually, Locus walked down the stairs and out of the hotel, not bothering to stop for the cheap breakfast in the lobby.

The sunlight flooded the street, people of all sorts walked up and down the sidewalk as cars whooshed by. Locus browsed through his scroll, finding what he was looking for under the option of "taxi."

With the press of a button on the screen, a cab was dispatched, and minutes later the vehicle parked in front of Locus. He climbed into the back.

"Where to?" The driver asked.

"Nearest weapons store, when we get there, stay there." Locus answered briefly.

"Uhhh...Ok. Nearest weapon's store is an hour's drive from here so that'll be... 25 lien total sir. Unless there's somewhere else you want to go." The driver replied thoughtlessly.

As they drove to the weapons shop, the chipper young driver piped up again.

"So... you a huntsman or something? Must be if you're going to a weapons shop during a time of peace. My name's Wood by the way, Sibiu Wood. What's yours?"

"Wood?"

"Yeah?

"Don't ask questions."

A long uneasy filled the cab immediately following. The next sound to fill the cab was the scree of the brakes as the vehicle pulled up to a fenced off weapons store uniquely named Saughes and Voss.

"Well, I'll wait here." Sibiu obeyed as he turned to see Locus.

He was already gone.

With the crunch of gravel beneath his feet and a warm breeze skirting over his skin, Locus looked up to see the deactivated neon sign that advertised the name of the facility in the broad sunlight.

He walked through to door to be greeted by the chime of a doorbell and the smell of something similar to that of gunpowder, but with a twist to it that it made it smell more…natural.

When Locus walked through the door he expected a fairly normal civilian greeting for him, such as a "Hello" or "You buying or selling?"

Instead Locus was thrown a question, one he did not expect.

"You a faunas?" The shopkeeper asked in a voice as gravelly as the ground outside his shop.

"Excuse me?"

"You got lead in your ears, kid? I asked if you were a faunas." The shopkeeper replied rudely.

"What if I say no?" Locus shot back.

The shopkeeper chuckled and grinned from ear to 8ear. Strolling behind the counter, he looked Locus over before grunting and lighting a cigarette.

"If you say no, then we're in business, as long as you got ID." The shopkeeper said, after a few tense moments, he spoke up again.

"Relax kid I'm fucking with you. Why are you here?" He questioned, cigarrete dangling from the corner of his lips.

"I need ammunition." Locus ordered.

"What kind?"

Wordlessly, Locus pulled ammunition schematics from his scroll. Courtesy of Santa. He showed them to the shop owner.

"Hmmm. Never seen any ammunition like that. Where'd you get those anyways?"

"That's not important. Do you know how I could acquire this ammunition?"

"Well…there a design workshop in the corner over there, you can make your own custom ammo but that costs more than regular ammo, and the cost will certainly build up over time. Honestly your better off just getting a custom made weapon that fires normal ammunition."

"What kind of custom weapons?"

"Custom made weapons can be designed any way you want them to be. Example: A sword that's also a pistol, a shotgun that's also a battle-axe, etc. Most huntsman I've seen use custom weapons."

Locus considered it for a moment. This offer seemed too good to be true, and the shopkeeper already had many pre-made melee weapons as well as ranged weapons lining the counter side wall and in trunks.

"What's the catch?" Locus questioned.

"Custom made weapons cost a large amount of lien to make, and a large amount to maintain. Kind of like a car, except it kills stuff instead of driving people places." The shopkeeper compared.

"Will this get me a custom weapon?" Locus asked as he slapped down a wad of lien on the glass counter. Followed by the shopkeeper grasping the money and counting it slowly.

After shuffling card after card of lien, the shopkeeper finally came to a conclusion.

"Nope." The salesman replied abruptly throwing the stack of money back on the counter. " _But_ that _will_ get you a nice hefty gun." The keeper continued, grabbing a triangular shaped item from the wall that quickly unfolded into an advanced firearm.

 _"This_ little puppy is the MAAW, or Multi-Action Assault Weapon. It's a fully functioning rifle that can turn into a shotgun just as fast. And, as you just saw, it also has a carry mode for when you're not shooting at stuff. This is the only one we got in stock and its limited edition. Made in Mistral." The owner rambled on.

"How much?" Locus interrupted.

"2,600 lien. You got 3,000 lien in that stack there so, you buying or not?"

After a mere moment of careful consideration, Locus made his decision.

"I need something practical, not flashy. I'll buy it." Locus decided.

"Ah ah ah. Not just yet." The shop owner interrupted, snatching a small cubicle device from his back pocket and holding it up to Locus' face.

"What are you doing?" Locus questioned.

"Facial and retinal scan. If I see your name pop up on a 'Wanted: dead or alive' poster, then you can kiss this gun goodbye. Otherwise, it's sold."

A few moments and a flurry of narrow beams of light scanning Locus' face was all it took for a result to flash on the other end of the cube.

"Hmm. No criminal record, no past suspicious dealings, nothing at all. You're record is squeaky clean." The owner revealed as he handed Locus his brand new firearm.

"Now...Do you wanna buy some ammo for that fine weapon?" He asked. A long laughter escaped his cracked lips that sounded more like a boiling kettle than a laugh.

Sighing in annoyance, Locus tossed 300 more lien on the counter, to the shopkeeper's pleasure. He scurried to the back of the shop and pulled out two different boxes of ammunition, before setting them down on the glass counter.

"Have a nice day." The shopkeeper commented while counting the lien.

A second chime of the doorbell signaled that Locus had snatched the ammunition and left without another word. As he made it to the cab, he was greeted again by Wood, who by now Locus had already grown exhausted of.

"Where to now?" Wood asked energetically.

Locus checked the time, he'd gotten up early so it still wasn't very late even after the drive and shopping, before making his decision.

"Lunch."

"Where's that?"

"Just take me to the city and drop me off at the first restaurant you can think of." Locus replied, not knowing anywhere or particularly caring.

"Ok then..., I think I know a place you might like" Suggested Sibiu as he started the motor and drove off, gravel and dust flowing past the windows.

A few miles and a few minutes later had landed the cab in front of a small run-down restaurant with no sign of its name on the front of the building.

"Ok well, this is the place. I know it doesn't look great, but as long as you don't talk too much, you should be fine. I kinda learned that the hard way." Sibiu warned, rubbing the back of his head.

"I'll keep quiet." The scarred sniper assured while he passed a few cards of lien and opened the backseat door.

"Well anyways, have a nice day." Sibiu replied just as Locus shut the cab door.

He walked up the cracked cement stair steps as the cab drove off.

The moment Locus walked in the establishment he could tell it wasn't exactly a family friendly place. The walls were stained with alcohol spilled long ago, the door hinges and wooden floors creaked under pressure, and the air reeked of stale and musty odors.

Even though it specialized in food, the place looked more like a bar than a restaurant. He received more than one hostile glance from the patrons.

Naturally, Locus was on his guard the second he walked through the door.

Fortunately for him, the suspicious glances dissipated as soon as they appeared. Cautiously, Locus approached and sat at the booth on the far end closest to the door, ordering a glass of water from the waitress, who disappeared into the back.

However, a small group of thugs were still glancing at Locus then each other and then Locus again. Locus tried his best to look inconspicuous but still kept his guard up, his hand near his energy sword in case the situation escalated. Locus peeked around his shoulder, there were four of them, couldn't be older than 18, with different insignia's on their clothing. Young gang members, perhaps?

Finally, the biggest of them, likely the leader stood up and strolled theatrically over to Locus, a confident smirk on his face, his steps slow and deliberate.

"Hey, uh... That seat's reserved, you might wanna move now." He suggested passive-aggressively.

"Reserved for who?" Locus traded back.

"Doesn't matter, what matters is that you shouldn't have sat there." The leader persisted.

"Then I'll move." Locus offered.

"Ohhh no. That's not good enough, pal. I think it's fair that you pay a little... _fine_ for sitting somewhere you're not supposed to." He threatened vaguely.

By now the three remaining thugs had gotten up and surrounded the lone mercenary. The other patrons of the run down establishment had vacated the area, sensing an impending situation that they did not want to stick around for. Fingers crawling over the de-activated handle of the energy sword, Locus replied.

"What kind of fine?" He questioned, tensing up.

"How about everything in your pocke-" The leader demanded. He did not get the chance to finish his sentence.

All at once, Locus slammed his lower palm into the chin of the leader, barreling through the break in the semi-circle as the leader stumbled back, clutching his jaw in pain as Locus punched him in the throat, incapacitating him temporarily. The three remaining thugs reached for their own weapons, but the true warrior did not lend them the chance.

He ignited the energy sword and slashed through their weapons with lightning speed. Immediately after he unfolded his brand new firearm. The three thugs had but a moment to stare in shock at their ruined weapons before they were knocked down in a perfected style.

The first one was met with a shotgun blast to the face, before his knee was kicked inwards and his skull crashed into a nearby stone table. He tried to get up, but was cut down by a burst of automatic fire, knocking him out cold.

Without missing a beat, the Sage colored fighter buried his foot in the abdomen of another thug with a solid sidekick. As the younger fighter keeled over in pain, he felt his arm being snapped to an odd angle, followed by a bolt of pain shooting through his body before he blacked out.

As the mercenary was occupied with the other two thugs, the third one snuck up on him, bringing what remained of his sword down on Locus' shoulder. Swiftly, Locus threw up his gauntlet at a steep angle to deflect the attack, metal screeching against metal, before seizing the wrists of his assailant. Locus shot past the boy before throwing _all of him_ over his shoulder and down onto the wooden counter, arms first, sending several wooden chips flying.

Locus' gaze shifted to the only other person in the room that was still conscious, the leader.

"Do you want to surrender?" Locus offered.

"You're crazy!" The leader spat.

"Wrong answer." Locus shot back.

Mace in hand, the leader of the thugs charged towards Locus. Re-igniting his energy sword, he rushed to meet the final thug.

The leader brought his mace down vertically with full force on his opponent. Locus easily sidestepped the clumsy strike and countered. The thug made the mistake of trying to block, and had his mace sliced in half by Locus for his error.

Without any way to defend himself, the last thug quickly attempted to flee, but Locus was faster. He pierced his cobalt blade through the boy's shin, dropping him to the ground like a collapsing and screaming tree.

The last thug made a pathetic attempt at crawling for his broken weapon, which had been thrown to the other side of the room. Before he could even come close to reaching it he was yanked back up onto his feet by the collar to face the Sage sniper.

"I advise you listen carefully to what I have to say, _boy_. You and your friends will not try to find me. When the police arrive you'll tell them that a brawl broke out and that you were injured in the process. I do _not_ have to tell you what happens otherwise." Locus commanded.

"Y-Yeah OK I got it! Just lemme go!" He whimpered in response.

"Good." Locus concluded before throwing him back down on the floor. The mercenary folded the MAAR back into its carry mode and de-activated the energy sword, storing the former on his back, and the latter neatly by his hip.

Severely beaten, the thugs slowly stumbled out of the building as a timid waitress stepped out from behind the counter.

"W-Would you like something to eat?" She asked nervously.

"No." Locus answered flatly.

Almost as soon as he said that, the waitress vanished into the kitchen. At the same time, a warm red glow popped up on Locus' scroll.

"Coincidentally, this location happens to be near the CCT tower I spoke of earlier. As you were fighting those miscreants, I decided to sift through some rather…interesting information locked away in an isolated sub-system." Santa revealed.

"Show me." Locus commanded.

The red glow shifted to show multiple maps and coordinates of locations all across remnant. Some locations had the words SU or SP while others had W or F. What interested Locus the most is that one location in Vale with the letter F above it was glowing red compared to the other grey ones. At the bottom of it was a Queen chess piece.

"What is this?"

"Although I am unsure of its ultimate purpose, I can inform you that you will not find this in the public CCT, whoever uses this information has gone to great lengths to be hidden from the authorities."

"Why is this important to me?" Locus asked.

"I also have received information that foretells me of a large public event that will happen several months from now. Also, the marking at the bottom is one I have detected across a plethora of equally interesting data."

"So you think this data could be linked to something big?" Locus pondered.

"Correct." Santa confirmed.

Any further conversation was disrupted as Locus' scroll began to ring. Device vibrating in his hand, he checked to see who it was.

Pershing.

Swiping the green answer key and putting the device next to his ear, Locus waited several seconds for Pershing to talk.

"Hello? Locus, you there?" A familiar voice on the other end crackled through the speaker.

"Yes. I'm here."

"Good. Meet me at Junior's nightclub in 30 minutes so I can buy you a couple drinks, yeah? I'll send you the location on your scroll." Pershing offered.

"Alright. I'll be seeing you soon." Locus replied, ending the call. Immediately after a small map popped up on screen showing the local area, the nightclub, and himself. He memorized the route before shutting the device off.

He sighed in exhaustion as he shoved the scroll back into his pocket, walking slowly towards the nightclub, sun at his back, weapons at his side.

 **Don't worry guys, I promise that I'll finish this chapter before I go to bed.**

 ***Starts writing and editing the chapter***

 **…**

 **…**

 **…**

 **…**

 **…**

 ***'Here Comes The Sun' plays faintly in the distance***

 **Anyways, I have been putting off this chapter for a while due to personal reasons, but last night I decided to make one huge push to get this chapter done because I'd been putting it off for too long.**

 **EDIT: Final Draft now updated. If you read the chapter without seeing this edit notice, it's because you were reading the second draft.**

 **Also thank you to Trusty McGoodGuy for being patient enough to teach me the ways of the fanfiction author.**

 **Oh and also don't forget to review.**

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter, bye.**


	6. Chapter 5: Fire Fighters

**Chapter 5: Fire Fighters**

Beta Read by: Trusty McGoodGuy

"And you're absolutely sure he's not working with them?" Ironwood inquired.

"Yeah I'm positive, nothing about this guy lines up with the Queen. No facial recognition, background, criminal record. Nothing. As far as the system is concerned, this guy didn't even exist until last week." Qrow confirmed.

"How did one person manage to do what entire teams of hackers could barely pull off in the past?" Glynda interjected.

"Because according to the CCT techies, it wasn't even a person. Way too fast, even for a group of people. And it adapted too quickly to be part of a pre-made virus. The best that they could come up with is that it was some sort of full functioning, fully sentient A.I. construct." Qrow explained as he scanned his scroll for any more updates from the CCT staff.

General Ironwood's eyes widened in surprise. Even the top science divisions in Atlas had a very difficult time getting their hands on an A.I. that advanced. However the Atlesian quickly collected himself.

"You said this person was a 'he.' How did you know that?" Ozpin interjected.

"Thanks to the efforts of two of our operators, as well as witnesses and security cameras from Adderail. They all say the same thing, Advanced armor with an X marked across his faceplate. Two of our operators that saw his face describe him as a man, early 40's, tan skin, distinctive ponytail." Ironwood listed off.

"Do they have a name?" Ozpin asked.

"My operatives said he called himself 'Locus.' If I had to guess, that's some sort of codename." Ironwood answered.

"So we're dealing with somebody who probably has training, if not experience. Sounds ex-military." Qrow added.

"What about the armor and weapons he has?" Glynda wondered.

"He carries a multitude of weapons from what we've seen. However another one of our operators noted that he recently acquired a new weapon, though at this time we do know what it is. As for the armor, not much is known. Our techies have pictures of it and they all agree that it's pieced together and likely to be high modifiable." Ironwood explained.

"So we're dealing with a man who probably has some level of military training, along with a walking armory and high-tech armor." Qrow concluded.

"So what should we do about him?" Glynda questioned, her scowling eyes darting Ozpin.

The headmaster was silent, all eyes in the room of the room waiting on his response, or even just a reaction. When he finally did, it was with a deep sigh. "For now we wait and observe to see whether or not he is a threat to the maidens. If he is however…...then we will talk." Ozpin decided.

* * *

 **KSSHH**

A sharp hiss of air accompanied the thick metal sliding doors as Locus strolled into the nightclub he had been invited to.

Looking around, he observed that most people were either drinking, socializing, or dancing. However a few men were all wearing the same thing. Red glasses, fedora, cheap suit.

What caught Locus' eye is that underneath their clothes, they were all armed. Though they were mostly swords and hatchets, Locus still didn't like the number of weapons he could see. He ignored them for the moment but decided he wanted to keep an eye on them just in case.

"Scan for suspicious activity." Locus commanded to the AI in his pocket.

"Scanning." Santa obliged as he winked out of existence.

"And here I thought you'd never show. You really know how to impress someone." Pershing snarked as he walked up to Locus. "Really though, are those the nicest clothes you have? I suppose I should at least be grateful you didn't come in your armor then."

"You didn't really call me here for drinks, did you? Why are we really here?" Locus interrogated quickly. He'd spent so long on the war-torn Chorus that any time spent out of his armor made him feel vulnerable, and so he wasn't in the best of moods to be friendly.

"Wow, you _really_ haven't had social contact in quite a while, have you?" Pershing replied.

Finding that his remark was met with nothing but a scowl, Pershing figured it was time to usher his comrade off to the VIP lounge.

The lounge itself was a boxed in room towering far above the rest of the nightclub. It was stuffy, the leather furniture was cracked and worn. More importantly however, it was quiet, which meant the walls and windows were soundproofed.

The dance music was still playing outside, and the bass rattled the windows of the room. Locus sat down on a cold leather bar stool, with Pershing plopping down onto a bean bag in retrospect.

"Why did you call me here?" Locus asked.

"Two reasons. One, I actually do want to buy you some drinks for helping us out at Adderail."

"And?"

"The second reason is more personal. I've been trying to find…somebody for weeks now. I got a lead on this person's whereabouts and my sources tell me there's an info broker here who could help me find the person I'm looking for. He's in the middle of a deal with someone else, so I'm going to have to wait."

"You said it's personal. You know the person you're looking for?" Locus questioned, prying for further information.

"You already know more than you need to know. I know I'm asking a lot of you since the Adderail job, but if you help me, you can use my safe house whenever you like. Weapons, ammo, a safe place to sleep, and a place to recharge your equipment." Pershing offered.

Locus paused for a few moments in considering his offer. The mercenary had no idea if this man who he had known for barely a week could be trusted.

However, if he were going to kill Locus, he would have tried it already, not to mention the fact that Locus had zero allies or friends. He needed to take every opportunity he could find right now.

"How do I know I can trust you? We've known each other for less than week."

"Minus this other person we're looking for, and a select few others, you're the only person I've ever known for that long."

His revelation was met with an unamused stare from the former Charon operator.

"I'm serious. I know it sounds dumb, but usually after I'm done with contacts during a mission, I burn myself from their tech. Except for my name, they got no record of me. I would have deleted any record of me from Dutch's scroll is he even had one." Pershing explained.

"Why burn your own records?"

"I think it's pretty self-explanatory. Besides, I got a better question, when we were on the bullhead from the emerald forest, you said you were an alien. Let's just say for a second that you aren't insane and that you really are an alien. Where are you really from?" Pershing interrogated, quickly changing the subject.

"That's...not exactly a simple question." Locus responded indecisively.

"Oh, isn't it? If I'm gonna go ahead and give you some info, it's only fair that I get some in return." Pershing shot back.

A trade then. Sighing, Locus decided that enough was enough. If this truly was an undiscovered planet, then there shouldn't be anyone past associates here to extract revenge for abandoning his "mission." And if Pershing started to make unwanted noise…well nobody would believe him if he told anyone anyway.

"Before I arrived on this planet, I-"

"Suspicious activity detected." Santa interrupted abruptly.

 **CRRAAASSHHHH**

Locus never got the chance to finish his sentence. Just as Locus had started, the informant they were supposed to contact was punched straight through the glass pane separating the lounge from the rest of the club. The dance music and broken glass flooded the lounge.

"This city never gets boring, I swear." Pershing sighed as he arose from his lounge chair, shards of glass crackling underfoot as he looked on towards the battle on the dancefloor now taking place.

Locus poked his head out just in time to witness a young blonde girl knockout one of the men in suits, and move onto the rest. Her fighting style, while flashy and disorganized, was proving to be very effective against the outmatched security "guards."

"Should we assist?" The ex-soldier asked, slightly concerned as more and more goons went down.

"You mean assist the sleazy low-life thugs acting like they're the toughest guys in the city? Or help out _Chartreuse Belleza_ over there?" Pershing shot back sarcastically, eyeing the young blonde raider.

"You know what I mean."

"Well, we're mercenaries. We don't have to help either side unless they pay us. You can help either side if you want. But unless you pay, _I'm_ not helping. It's just business."

Locus turned back and silently watched the young girl fight. She'd taken care of the goons quickly, the DJ too, and was currently fighting with two girls Locus didn't recognize. The way she fought was worrying. Flashy, and with a weaker defense towards her legs, but her attacks were as powerful as they were brutal.

"She's a threat."

"Not to us, she isn't. Besides, I have someone to talk to." Pershing wandered over to the bearded man who was groaning on the floor. "Wake up Junior." He sang, lightly slapping his face to get the man to focus.

With a final groan, "Junior" sat up and looked up Pershing. "Ugh, do I know you?"

"Not yet. I had an appointment with you for some info-"

Junior shoved Pershing's head away as he stood up, stomping over to the wall where he pulled off a panel to reveal a large safe. Opening it up, Junior turned back around with a large missile launcher slung over his shoulder.

"You want your info? Help me get rid of blondie first, I'll even wave your fee if you do a good job."

As Junior walked past them, a snarl on his face, Pershing locked eyes with Locus. "Guess you got your wish then."

The two mercenaries swiftly moved to Juniors side as he began his attack, firing off a missile which split and began to rain fire down upon his club. The girl deftly dodged them with an almost mocking ease.

As she began to close however, Locus and Pershing were upon her, guns firing wickedly to drive her back from Junior. It worked, and she backed off to fire at the two mercenaries instead, earning a direct missile strike for her trouble.

To Locus, things seemed to be going relatively well. The girl was tough, and could be _very_ fast on her feet when she needed to be, but there were simply too many who were skilled against her. Locus and Pershing would keep her at bay with sustained machine gun and shotgun fire respectively, whilst Junior would deal the serious damage whenever she stopped dodging to attack.

That was at least, until she stopped completely. Locus knew something was wrong the moment she raised her arms to block, and sported a victorious grin on her face. Juniors missiles engulfed her in a ball of fire, which erupted again a moment later. The smoke cleared, and the girl's hair was glowing with power, while her eyes changed to a red rage.

With more speed than she had ever previously shown, the teenager rocketed past Locus and Pershing and straight into Junior. The flurry of intense blows that she landed, knocked Junior out in seconds, and then she was onto Pershing.

Pershing dodged the first flurry of Yang's punches before he nooked his blade around Yang's ankle, tripping her.

Without hesitation, the faunas merc aimed his shotgun at the fallen Yang and pulled the trigger.

 **CLICK CLICK**

Startled, Pershing frantically tries to reload his shotgun whilst retreating away from the enraged blonde.

Too late.

One leg sweep and a solid punch to the face later, and Pershing was down for the count. Immediately after, the club smasher turned her attention to Locus.

"Attack pattern calculated." Santa's voice was like a gift from an angel, as a series of predicted strikes were projected using the club's lights.

Apparently whatever light show Santa had conducted was only visible to Locus, as the girl didn't change from what the AI had predicted. Shotgun blasts echoed past Locus' ears as he desperately dodged left and right to avoid her blows, if even a single one hit him then he would doubtlessly be finished.

The Great Key was out and ignited, swiping at her legs any chance he got. She focused almost purely on punching, which meant he'd be a fool to try and take her on in hand to hand. If he had to guess, it looked like she'd powered up like the faunus on the train too. So her already dangerous punches were now almost _deadly_.

The plasma blade nicked the girl's leg, but just as with the other hits he'd managed to land, it did a whole lot of nothing to even slow her down.

' _She's powered herself up with her damage, but that doesn't mean she's not still hurt. I need to find a way to hurt her, and quickly.'_

As if to punctuate the threat she posed, one of her fists finally managed to bury itself in his stomach, and he was blasted across the room. Perhaps it was her growing frustration, or pure luck, but he was out of range for her to follow up and knock him out completely.

"Santa!" Locus began to demand as the blonde rushed to finish him off.

"Calculating attack pattern."

Another set of lights illuminated in front of him, this time showing the counters he needed. Blows began to rain around him as he dodged, swiftly stopped as Locus grabbed her leg and tripped her over. His sword stabbed down upon her, deflecting away as a golden aura shattered over her body.

She was up in an instant, a sudden desperation in her movements as she seemed to realize just what situation her reckless attacks had caused. It didn't save her however, as following Santa's directions Locus landed a flurry of blows on her. She hit the floor hard, unconscious but alive, as Locus had de-activated the Great Key.

His breathing was hard, but stable, and Locus heard several groans to his side. Turning, he spotted Pershing extend a hand down to the informant, and pull him awkwardly to his feet. The Faunus turned back to him to answer his silent question of 'what now?'

"You…go take her outside. I'll get my info." His breathing was just as labored, but like the sage-colored sniper, he seemed to be recovering quickly.

Locus gave a nod, and draped the teenager over his shoulder.

She let out only weak moans as he exited the club, though each one set his nerves on edge as he feared for yet another attack. He'd had _way_ too many fights in such a short time on this new planet, each one more bizarre than the last.

He laid her down gently though, feeling no real resentment for her. She was a young trouble maker, and while he'd killed his fair share of those before…he didn't hate them.

"What are you doing?"

The words caught him by surprise, and he turned to see an even younger teenage girl in a hood, watching him just a short distance from him.

"Girl was causing trouble." He pointed with his head down to her, and was about to go back inside when he noticed her stare. She was watching the girl with a mix of concern, and disappointment. "You know her?"

She was startled as it snapped her out of her trance. "Oh, yeah. She's my sister."

He would have expected an angrier outburst if that was the case, but he guessed she must have seen he wasn't truly mad. "Just make sure she doesn't swing by again."

She nodded, and he walked back into the club.

By the time he got in, most of the goons were starting to move again, and some had even begun to sweep up the mess made during the fight. Locus' attention however, was on Pershing, who had apparently finished his talk and was busy reloading his shotgun.

"Well Locus, I got good news, and I got bad news for you."

"Is now really the time?"

Ignoring him, Pershing continued. "The good news is that I got the info I wanted." He mentioned, gesturing Junior as he wandered around his wrecked club.

Pershing loaded the final shell into one of his shotguns as he continued. "The bad news…."

He leveled the weapon at Locus.

"... is that this is where friendships end, and business begins."

 **BANG**

That was the last thing Locus heard before he was enveloped by a shroud of darkness.

 **Holy shit I actually submitted a new chapter. Wowzers, ain't that something.**

 **Alright you guys, you got me, I procrastinated. But it's not like I'm some sort of prisoner assigned to write these chapters under the threat of being sent to the god damn gulag if I didn't.**

 **A new thing you guys may have noticed is that I only made this chapter 2k words instead of 3k. That's because 3k word chapters are a pain in the ass to refine and they take a lot longer to write, so I'm going to be sticking with 2k worded chapters, at least for the time being.**

 **And of course, the second obvious thing, Pershing turned on Locus! *GASP!* But why? I'm not gonna tell you why, did you honestly expect me to tell you here? Tune in next time to find out, ya dip.**

 **Also if you look slightly down, there's a little rectangle called "review." I want you to hit that and throw some words into that box, OK? Please do it as a personal favor to me.**

 **See you guys next time.**

 **-Writen**


	7. Chapter 6: Nihil Sub Sole Novum

**Chapter 6: Nihil Sub Sole Novum**

 **Beta Read by: Trusty McGoodGuy**

Rain

The only thing that could be seen out of the warehouse window that Cinder had found herself overseeing. She despised having to surround herself with this unworthy vermin known to everyone as the White Fang, but under orders from Salem herself, she had no choice. Though the argument could be made that she did not see anyone of being human or faunas being worthy.

Thunder boomed outside the thick concrete walls, sending a muffled acoustic shock wave to accompany the clinking of her glass footsteps through the cracked warehouse floor.

"Hey boss." A silver-haired associate called out.

Sighing in annoyance as she turned to him. "What is it this time, Mercury?" She replied in a passive aggressive tone, his repeated attempts to 'help' often serving to merely annoy her.

"Remember that subsystem you were trying to keep under wraps? Well, someone found it." He replied worryingly.

At this revelation, the half-maiden's eyes widened before shifting into a furiously cold glare.

"And after all the funds and favors I had to put into keeping that locked away from the CCT staff, how did someone find it?" She demanded in stone cold tone.

"Look, I wish I knew, but I don't. I'm not the tech specialist remember?" The the cocky kickboxer pointed out.

Sighing in annoyance. Cinder strode over to the impromptu tech lab that had been thrown together in the wake of her "merging" with the White Fang while the silver haired mercenary went back to his own business.

Some White Fang members who wore casual clothing were clacking away at their keyboards, working together to track down and "quarantine" the virus on their system. Other White Fang members who were in uniform were guarding the hacker team from potential threats.

Spying what would either be the answer to her problem or her next victim, Cinder advanced on the older gentleman overseeing the digital coalition. The clinking of her glass heels alerted the faunas overseer to her presence.

"Tell me what happened Glacies." The half-maiden demanded, refusing to waste her precious patience on a lowly hacker.

"I-I was running a systems check, when I found that someone had breached the subsystem you had installed." Glacies explained somewhat nervously.

"I suppose it's up to you whether I kill you for letting it be found, or kill you for failing to stop it." Cinder offered as a large tongue of flame sprouted menacingly from her palm.

Immediately as the flame filled her hand. Every single White Fang rebel stopped what they were doing, knowing that their new "boss" and her lackeys could kill every single one of them with little effort. All eyes were on the overseer who had stepped on one too many toes.

"Uhhhh, I did manage to find out who, or more accurately _what_ breached that subsystem." The faunas replied, beads of sweat from his fear quickly building up on his forehead.

The tension in the air was thick enough to be cut by a dull knife. But after what seemed like an eternity, the potential executioner gave her reply.

"Speak." She commanded as she extinguished the flame in her hand.

"I did some searching around through the security camera recordings throughout the city, and I believe we have a winner. You wouldn't be able to tell it's him if you saw him. It's just one guy, regular human. But what caught my eye is the A.I."

"A.I.?" Cinder pressured.

"It's unlike anything I've run into before. My team spent an entire month working on those firewalls and virtual defences, and this A.I. goes through all of them in under two minutes. So far as we can tell, it's a fully sentient A.I., but with no trace of Atlas markings on it. Nothing from your clandestine enemies that work from the shadows either." Glacies explained.

"A third party then…" she mused, mind already building plans and backups for the new complication.

"What do you want us to do?"

"For now, we wait. Build a background on him, but don't contact or follow him." Cinder ordered.

As she began to stroll away, she paused mid stride. "Do you at least have his name?" The flame-wielder asked.

"The audio recording from the cameras said his name is 'Locus.'" Glacies replied.

Cinder walked away to contact her associate, while Glacies just sighed in relief that his boss hadn't decided to turn him into a pile of ash in front of his colleagues.

"Well you know what they say, 'There is nothing new under the sun.'" The Faunus hacker muttered to himself.

* * *

The second Locus started to come to, he knew he wasn't in the nightclub anymore.

The high pitched whine of a supercharger followed by the hum of a whirring motor filled the mercenary's eardrums.

Every few seconds the ground would bounce and Locus would become disoriented and groan in frustration. The mercenary realized that he must be in a vehicle of some kind.

"Looks like X-face is coming around." A familiar voice taunted.

"Put him back under, we're not at a secure location yet." A feminine authoritarian voice commanded.

A dull pain invaded his arm and forced its way inside before he felt a cool liquid flood into his veins.

Blackness stood like a ring against his peripheral vision, before it started to push inwards. The ex-soldier tried to retaliate against the darkness, but to no avail.

Again, the darkness overpowered him.

* * *

 **SPLASH**

Cold water shocked him awake, but Locus didn't gasp for air as most would have. He'd been in similar situations before, so he wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing any desperation. Instead he shook his head to rid himself of excess water droplets.

As his vision began to clear he recognized the faces of two people he had met during his few days on the planet.

One was a familiar rat faunas who had stuck with the charon mercenary throughout his few days on the bizarre planet. He'd essentially been his partner throughout his three day ordeal. At least until he stabbed him in the back.

Pershing.

The other face he didn't recognize at first. Locus had only seen her once, but her uniform and stark white hair had quickly given away her identity

Winter.

"Sorry for screwing you over, Locus." Pershing began.

"You never were looking for anybody in that nightclub, were you? It was a just a trap." Locus pieced together.

"I was looking for somebody there. But I got orders from the General that you were a class 6 dangerous individual, so I figured if I took you down in the nightclub, it would be two birds with one stone."

"Class-6 dangerous individual?" Locus questioned.

"If someone, or in your case _something_ , tries to break their way into the CIT without permission, Atlas installed countermeasures to trace whoever tried to get into the CIT. Come on, you didn't think we were totally defenseless, did you?" Pershing revealed.

"What do you want?" The ex-soldier inquired.

"I'll answer that later. Right now I should be the one asking questions, got it?" The Faunus merc shot back.

Locus only gazed in silence, looking around the cold, dry room for something to help him. All he found was a metallic floor and roof, and concrete walls.

"In the bullhead and at the nightclub, you said you were an alien. DNA tests say you're human, so what's that all about?" Pershing began.

Locus gave him nothing, not even a refusal. The basic step to resisting an interrogation, was silence, something the mercenary was happy to indulge in given who was asking the questions. It seemed Pershing realised that too however, as he frowned and looked over to Winter.

"Fingerprints aren't a match for anybody in our database, no records of anything like an education or any family. Whatever A.I. you had is decades beyond what we have now, and yet you're a ghost. We've ran every test in the book and came back with nothing, so I suppose it's time you answer that question…..where are you _really_ from?" Winter interrogated.

Locus continued his silence, having no real reason to give them anything. Talk, and they would most likely just kill him afterwards, and take what they wanted from his equipment. Keep quiet, it gave him more time for Santa to find some way of rescuing him, since they hadn't captured him yet. If they had, firstly they would have said something, secondly, they just wouldn't be able to contain him. He had more faith in the alien AI than that.

Whatever they might have expected him to do, they certainly didn't look happy when he said nothing, even when Winter demanded answers once more. The woman then upped her arguments, threatening him with torture, jail sentences, and even using him as a test subject. Rather clearly, she thought he was just some mercenary with some fancy tech, most likely because of what Pershing had told her about him, which Locus had purposefully kept minimal.

She never did anything though, even as her frustrations rose and rose, and her patience very clearly running out. Interestingly, she never actually carried out her threats. Perhaps much like the UNSC had once been, this Atlas place had rules against such things, and she merely hoped he didn't know.

 **KSSHHH**

The airtight door in the back of the room slid open, revealing the well-built, square-jawed, battle-hardened general of the Atlesian military if Locus was interpreting the ranks correctly.

"General Ironwood." Winter greeted, as the two operatives in the room saluted.

"At ease, soldiers." He commanded as he strolled towards his newest prisoner. "What do we have?"

"Sir. He's said nothing of value." Winter stiffly reported, making the general raise his eyebrows in interest. "Demanded some answers, but went quiet when we didn't give them to him."

"Alright... Operative Pershing you are dismissed. Operative Winter, you may remain." Ironwood ordered.

"Yes, sir!" The Atlesian operative saluted, before marching with an uncharacteristic discipline out of the interrogation room.

As the sliding doors parted, Pershing took one last glance at the former Charon operator and winked mischievously before he headed out.

"So, you're obviously military, even if we have no record of you. I'll be frank, you've taken something that doesn't belong to you." Locus' mind began to whirl as to just what he could have been referring to. "If you return it now, then we can begin to talk about a lesser punishment."

Locus took several moments to mull it over, before finally responding. "I don't know what you're talking about, I've not stolen anything."

Winter began to snarl in frustration, but Ironwood stepped in before she could say anything. "We know that you're in possession of an AI, and that it hacked into the CCTS Tower." Locus revealed nothing, but he realised what Santa must have done. "You had it download some very sensitive information."

Ironwood glared at the mercenary, who was thinking through his options with care. He didn't exactly have much to bargain with beyond whatever Santa had taken, and since it was something he had no knowledge of or interest in, then it was even less of a choice for him.

"Where's my scroll?" Locus asked, slightly startling Winter as he actually _responded_. She recovered quickly though, reaching into a small box of his belongings and passing his Scroll over to the General.

"What do you need this for?" The general held it up for the man to see, though he didn't make any move to hand it over.

"Santa, reveal yourself." Before his two interrogators could express their confusion at such a bizarre name, the familiar red hologram of the Sangheili appeared in the air.

"What? How did you... " Winter flustered as she looked upon the security breach which floated mockingly in front of her. "We scanned that scroll, there was nothing on it."

"Your scanners are primitive, had I not interacted with your technology at your CCTS Tower, I may not have even noticed them." The AI turned to the military man who was holding his storage device. "I've scanned through the files I downloaded from the tower, and checked within your own from nearby computers. Rest assured that all classified information has been deleted General James Ironwood."

"How did you-"

"You have been holding the True Warrior here for some time, I used it to investigate who his captors were." The AI turned to address his 'owner'. "None of these people may be called true warriors, but it is unlikely they will harm you."

"What. Is. Happening!?" It seemed the general held a temper only slightly longer than that of Winter's, and wasn't quite the wise soldier Locus had predicted him to be. "Why were you in the CCTS database, and why do you look like some kind of _Grimm_?"

"I entered your database to learn more of this world, it is very different from my previous one General Ironwood." The AI explained calmly. "As for my appearance, I was modelled after my creators."

"...explain."

Santa did just that. For the next hour, he showed helmet camera recordings, technical documents, star charts, everything he had on Locus' and his own background. Both Ironwood and Winter were silent throughout, until the end of the explanation, where Winter broke the silence first.

"That's…"

"Winter, come with me. We need to discuss this."

She hesitated at first, but headed out the room, the general following a short distance behind her. The room filled with silence, before Locus turned towards Santa and spoke.

"You left out what I did on Chorus. Why?"

"It was not relevant for convincing the general. You have changed from that person, so it was not needed to be told." That, surprised Locus. He didn't want to be a monster anymore, but that didn't mean he could just shed away the scars of his past. Santa may not have seen it as "relevant" anymore, but for the mercenary...it always would be.

They sat in silence for a long while after that, before the general and Winter walked back in. Winter looked mildly annoyed, but kept quiet as Ironwood spoke. "We've discussed it, and we are willing to let you go, in exchange for the AI."

"I refuse." Every human's head snapped around towards the AI who had spoken. "I am only programmed to follow the orders of a true warrior, none of you are. However," Santa turned towards the tied up man in the chair "this one has been marked as such."

Locus noticed how he didn't mention about the sword, and that it was only that which kept Santa _mostly_ obeying his orders. Were one of his captors to kill him, they would gain the sword, and with it…

"I can't let you go. On purpose or not, you've seen too much." The general was visibly thinking through his options, before sighing and pulling a scroll out of his pocket. With the tap of a button, Locus' restraints opened and he was freed. "Consider yourself hired then, mercenary. You'll be working for us now, under the personal command of Winter here."

"That doesn't sound much like a choice."

"It isn't."

 **Aaaand now you guys know why pershing turned on Locus, are you satisfied?**

 **Not much to say here other than the obvious fact that Locus is now working for the Ozpiluminati against the Saluminati.**

 **Also we reached**

 **JUAN-JUANDRED FOLLOWERS OH MY SWEET GOODNESS**

 **See you next time on**

 **A Soldier No Longer!**

… **..Wow that was really cheesy, wasn't it?**

Yes, it was. **My beta reader says.**

 **Follow, fav, review, all that. Thanks.**

 **-Writen.**


	8. Chapter 7: Caelum One

**Chapter 7: Caelum One**

 **Beta Read By: Trusty McGoodGuy**

* * *

The second Locus landed on this rock, he knew he was going to end up getting more than he asked for, but this whole situation was just downright bizarre and ridiculous.

Within the course of a single week, he had been in at least four combat engagements, discovered an entirely new species called 'faunas,' had this 'aura' power unlocked from inside of him, and been captured by what appeared to be the most advanced military on this planet.

And all of this was because of the decision of an alien A.I.

"Obviously enough, I have many questions for you." Ironwood commented, interrupting Locus' train of thought.

Before the mercenary could respond, Ironwood swirled through a cluster of holographic locks and keypads. A dull screech of metal against metal could be heard immediately after.

"You'll need to wait out here, Winter." Ironwood said.

"Yes, sir." The operative replied, diligently.

As the two entered the darkened vault, the clicks of old, rusted-out lights could be heard. Dim, yellow light flowed throughout the long-forgotten room, accompanied by the annoying buzz of electricity.

"As hard to believe as it still is, literally everything we have on you tells me that you are not indeed of this planet. Therefore, I believe that it wouldn't be beyond reason to show you everything Atlas currently owns in terms of a space program." Ironwood began.

The vault itself was enormous, revealing what appeared to be an old, rusted-out crew capsule for a primitive spacecraft by UNSC standards. The room was decked with aged scientific equipment that looked like it belonged in a museum. There was one thing that caught Locus' eye, however.

The armor.

A feeling of deja-vu crept over Locus. He had seen this armor before, but he couldn't quite put his finger on where. It looked to be standard UNSC operative armor, though it was much more worn down.

There were some minor differences between his armor and this one. This armor was dented, cracked, and burned in some areas, and the helmet was missing. The paint scheme was so dull that it had all but faded away with time.

"Look familiar?" Ironwood prodded.

"Where did you get this?" Locus questioned.

"That's classified. What matters is whether you recognize it or not." The general shot back, changing the subject.

"It looks to be of UNSC make. I can't be sure who this belonged to, though." Locus answered.

"You can answer that later. For now, there's is something more important that I need you to see, or rather hear." Ironwood responded, strolling over to what seemed to be communications equipment. Locus couldn't be sure due to the fact that it was so strangely primitive compared to the rest of the equipment he had seen.

"I want you to listen to this, and I want you to listen very carefully." Ironwood ordered, pressing his finger down on the play button of an ancient tape recorder. As the tape began to play, two voices could be heard.

" _Atlas control, this is Caelum 1. We have now entered the exosphere. Awaiting command, over."_

" _Roger Caelum, switch to manual control for the thrusters."_

" _Switching now."_

" _Activate thrusters 2,3, and 6."_

" _Activating…"_

Suddenly, a feminine voice from the spacecraft's end popped up, interrupting the conversation. " _Sir, I'm picking up a signal on the external scanners. It's consistent, likely extraterrestrial."_

Both officers on the end of the line were in shocked silence. An extraterrestrial signal could only mean one thing.

Alien life.

Without warning, a deafening roar of static could be heard from the spacecraft. Electronics could be heard powering down whilst the crew was in a frenzy, frantically trying to figure what happened.

" _Caelum 1, report. What's going on?"_ The ground control officer questioned.

After a small bout of distorted chatter in the background, likely the captain commanding his crew, the second voice came back on the line.

" _I don't know! All the ship's controls just suddenly stopped working! Main thrusters are offline, and we're losing altitude quickly. Permission to switch to auxiliary thrusters, over."_ The would-be astronaut replied through the static filled receiver.

" _Granted. Prep the chutes. If you fall below 30,000 feet, hit the parachute release."_ Ground control commanded.

" _Prepping chutes now. Switching to auxiliary thrusters, now. Altitude is 110,000 feet and falling._

A long and tense silence filled the line as the crew capsule descended from 110,000 feet to 50,000.

Suddenly, the array of electronics that had lost power earlier in the flight could be heard powering up back to life.

" _Atlas control, we have power again. We're just about at 30,000 feet, releasing chutes, over."_

" _Sigh...copy that, Caelum 1. Mission failed."_

 **CLICK**

A hollow silence filled the vault as Ironwood took out the tape and put it back on the table.

"That mission was four decades ago, and it was the first of only three spacecraft we sent up. The other two missions happened exactly the same way, except they didn't hear the signal. As for the crew who picked up the signal, they were sworn to never talk about it to anyone." Ironwood revealed in a monotone.

"If you're asking me if I created that signal-" Locus began.

"I'm not." The Atlesian interrupted. "I'm simply asking whether or not you know anything at all about this signal."

"...No…" Locus responded.

"Then I trust that you will keep it confidential as to what you've heard here?" Ironwood inquired.

"Of course." Locus assured.

"Good. Since you don't know anything about the Caelum 1 signal, we'll move on." Ironwood replied, marching over to the vault control panel, closely flanked by Locus.

"Where are we going now?" The former charon operator questioned as he tapped his foot in anticipation.

"Your appearance at this time was not the most auspicious thing we could have asked for. However, since you downloaded that data, things have become much more...complicated." Ironwood explained.

"We?" Locus briefly interrupted.

"Even if you are telling us the truth when you say you have not stolen that information, we can't be 100% sure that you didn't read any of that information before it was deleted." Ironwood continued.

"Where are you going with this?" Locus asked, suspicious.

"Just giving you a warning. If you have read it, you can either come clean right here and now, or you end up right back in that cell." Ironwood shot back.

"I did _not_ read that information." The mercenary replied sternly.

"...For your sake, you'd better not be lying to me. Dismissed." The general concluded.

And just as soon as one Atlesian had stalked off, another one found herself in Locus' presence.

"The rest of your equipment is being held in the contraband room. Report to the briefing room in 15 minutes. Dismissed." Winter commanded in her usual cold, indifferent tone.

No response was given from the mercenary, it wasn't necessary. Locus turned to follow the directions leading to the contraband room which his equipment was being held in.

After retrieving and equipping his recovered armor and weaponry, the mercenary proceeded to the briefing room.

The second he opened the door, Winter was overlooking him as if he were some street thug about to attack her.

"Is something wrong?" Locus wondered.

"Oh wonderful. Your bio says that you're occupation is being a mercenary. As if we didn't already have enough of those on base." Schnee shot back, annoyed.

"I wasn't brought here on my own will." Locus pointed out logically.

"Well...I suppose you have a point." Winter said reluctantly.

She continued as she slapped a paper down onto her desk. "Your first mission will be overseen by a huntsman by the name of...let's see here…." The Atlesian began, flipping through the pages.

Stopping on one page and pulling it out from the rest, her expression fell as she looked the piece of intel over.

"Oh dear...I almost feel sorry for you." Winter responded, concerned.

"What is it?" The merc questioned, impatient.

Worry tinged her words as she spoke. "It seems that you have the misfortune of being paired with a huntsman infamous for his lack of discipline. Qrow."

"Wonderful." Locus replied in sardonic tone.

A moment of silence was the only thing hanging in the air before the Atlesian continued dejectedly. "Report to logistics for re-assignment, that is all", was all she replied with before turning back to her work.

As he walked away from his new C.O., Locus found the hallway to be crowded with all sorts of personnel. From soldiers to scientists, all scurrying about to complete their own objectives.

Suddenly, all activity stopped as the Atlesians in the hallway noticed Locus. Unnerved, Locus continued to walk through, bumping into so of the people along the way.

Right now the mercenary wanted nothing more in the way of conversation, and kept to himself as he followed the signs glinting in the artificial light.

Locus continued to follow sign after sign…

Again

And again

And again

Until the ex-charon operator realized that he was, in fact, lost.

"Um...excuse me, you're that new guy on base, right. I think you're lost." A young feminine voice questioned from behind him.

And apparently this fact was not lost on the people around him.

"What do you mean by that?" Locus responded monotonically.

Immediately, the young scientist became timid, pushing in her glass nervously. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude, it's just that you passed logistics twice now. You go down the hall, take a left, then right, then you're there." She pointed out helpfully.

Locus was about to give thanks to the scientist when he realized something.

"Wait...how did you know I was heading to logistics?" The mercenary interrogated as he instinctively tensed up in a defensive posture.

"P-Pershing told me…" She replied anxiously.

Locus had just realized that both he and Pershing were assigned to Logistics at the moment. The first thought that crossed the merc's mind is that he should have a "talk" with the faunas.

At least that was the idea before he realized he couldn't.

"Look, I don't know what the specifics of what happened between you two. Most of us don't. What we do know is that he screwed you over." She mentioned, as if reading Locus' mind.

"And?"

"What I'm trying to say is...don't start anything bad with Pershing. Please?" She pleaded.

"...Why?" Locus decided, realizing that effort would be wasted.

"Pershing and I are...friends, I guess you could say. I know him well, sure he's not the best on following protocol and the like, but he is a good person. He only shot you while you were down because he was under orders, not for some sick pleasure." The scientist testified.

"...Alright." Was the mercenary's response after a considerate pause. 'Friends', he didn't believe it was just that for a second.

"Thank you. Now how about I show you the way to Logistics so you remember in the future." The scientist said as she began walking down the brick and metal hallway.

"Right." The operator agreed, following after her.

As Locus was shadowing the Atlesian, he noticed that the architecture here was vastly different from the other places he had seen on this planet. Everything here was made of hard metal, instead of the decorative stone he'd seen in places like the city.

A vast armory of various weapons passed Locus. Blinding artificial light flooded his vision as his metallic boots collided with the concrete floor. There it was. Through the crystal clear window, Locus could see a room with a full spread of CPU's and monitors, all being operated by one person or another.

"We're here." She pointed out.

The mercenary only nodded to the scientist before he headed inside. The second he stepped through the creaky wooden door, a new person was already speaking to him.

An older man instantly approached Locus, his circular glasses, bald head, and green uniform giving away the fact that he was a logistics officer. "Ah hello there Mr…..Locus. You must be one of those hired guns the ASTF is so fond of"

"The ASTF?" The alien asked.

"Atlesian Special Task Force. You know, the guys who kidnapped you." The L.O. replied nonchalantly as he continued. "Ah that reminds me! You're here for re-assignment. Here take this." He remembered, handing the operator a keycard, as well as some papers.

"What-"

"What are these? What you're carrying is a keycard to hangar 4, where a bullhead, as well as anyone else who will be accompanying you, will be waiting there. Since you're new here, I also took the time to print out a map of the base. Minus the classified parts of course." The logistics officer explained.

"...Do you have any idea of what I'll be doing in my assignment?" Locus replied, slightly hesitant.

Pulling out a small slip of paper, the L.O. quickly skimmed through it before responding "Ummm no. It says here that whoever you're meeting on the bullhead with brief you on the way. Must be some hush-hush classified stuff."

"Thank you." Locus responded as he turned to leave.

"Yeah yeah. Good luck on not dying." The L.O. shot back as the mercenary strolled out the door.

 **Oh ho ho my sweet BUHJESUWE-ARR. (Pronounced buh-gee-zoo-we-are)**

 **I haven't checked yet, but we are either extremely close, or have already passed the amount of follows and favorites of my old version of this story.**

 **Thanks guys.**

 **Also you guys might be wondering**

 **"Oh my Jesus, Writen. Why in the Christ haven't you updated in 72 generations?"**

 **Freshman year. High school. 'Nuff said.**

 **Seeya next time**

 **-Writen**


	9. Chapter 8: Cold Zero

**A Soldier No Longer**

 **Chapter 8: Cold Zero**

 **Beta Read By: Trusty McGoodGuy**

 _"Would Operator Locus report to the briefing room 2B? I repeat would Operator Locus report to briefing room 2B? That is all."_ Spouted a sultry voice on the intercom before the system crackled and shut off once again.

Meanwhile Locus himself wasn't sure if he was annoyed or just confused. Annoyed because he'd been wandering around the base for the past half hour, and confused because he had no idea what would cause a change of plans this close to a mission.

However, he reported to the briefing room all the same. The mercenary figured that he would receive all the answers he needed there.

An armored guard standing at the door opened it for him, revealing Winter in what appeared to be civilian clothing, Sabre strapped to her waist.

"What is this?" The mercenary inquired, both confused and slightly curious.

Winter's voice was firm and left no room for argument. "There's been a change of plans, I'm going with you instead of Qrow." She answered, already on her way to hangar four.

"And Qrow?" The mercenary wondered.

"That drunk dimwit never arrived at the rendezvous point, which is why I'm here." The specialist quickly clarified.

"I see…" Locus responded, seriously concerned about this military's ability to choose mercenaries.

"Hurry up! We're already late!" Schnee barked at her newest subordinate.

Locus could only sigh before he quickly following suit, the two warriors made their way towards hangar four, where they were welcomed by the sight of bullhead and its pilot. Engines primed and green lights lit, they boarded the vessel.

The effect of G-forces pushed everyone down in their seats as the bullhead blasted off the aircraft platform. The unsteady shaking of metal filled the cabin as they pushed their way into the sky. A few minutes later they were sitting at around 6000 meters, too high for any nevermore or griffon to have any hope of catching them. Usually anyway...

"The logistics officer told me that I would be briefed of my mission on the way there." Locus reminded.

"Qrow was supposed to fill you in, but since he never arrived, I suppose that will fall to me. Somewhat fitting I guess as your commanding officer…" Even if Locus were as deaf as a rock, he doubted he could have missed the amount of 'subtle' disdain she held in her voice over having to work with him."

"And the Lieutenant?" Locus asked.

"Her name is Uwe Pacific. We don't have 100% confirmation that she is White Fang, so we're going to find out. I'm told that what she lacks in brute power she makes up for in wits and resourcefulness, so be on your guard."

"How do we get into the town without drawing suspicion? I'm still in my armor." The armored merc. pointed out.

"Our cover story is that we're bounty hunters from the northern Mistral, a popular place for criminals and the like to gather. However they don't attack the villages because they're the only places they can stop for supplies and shelter between the north and the main city." Winter explained.

"How do I know I can trust you?" Locus asked without warning.

"...Excuse me?" Winter responded, slightly taken aback by the blunt accusation.

"My last partner shot me while I was down, and if it wasn't for my aura I'd probably be dead now. My other partner before that went insane and betrayed me. I have no reason to trust you." Locus stated bitterly.

"Well then I suppose that makes two of us. You're a mercenary that I have absolutely no intel on. Nothing. As far as I'm know, you could be a threat to Atlas, perhaps even Remnant as a whole. And unless you prove yourself not to be, then that's what I'll believe." The Atlesian declared.

Before their argument could continue, the pilot spoke up. "We're nearing the IP now. Boots on the ground in 30 seconds." He informed in the usual military slang that was pleasantly and disturbingly, similar to that of the UNSC. He wasn't too surprised though, too much else for something as small as _that_ to surprise him.

Without time or reason to continue their argument, the two operators simply sat in silence. Not even looking at one another.

Moments later, the high-pitched whir of the landing gear moving down could be heard inside the cabin of the bullhead, signaling that it was time to go.

Winter immediately rose from her seat, cracking open the side door of the bullhead as wind rushed in from the outside.

Locus and Winter hopped off. The ground below them quickly changing from the welded steel of an aircraft to hard, rocky soil of a forest.

At the same time, the bullhead started to lift back into the air. Its powerful twin engines pushed far into the distance of the dying sunset. Soon the aircraft was out of sight entirely, the roar of the exhaust replaced by the nearby wildlife resuming its routine once more.

Still silent, the two operatives followed their coordinates to the village, the only sound that revealed their presence was the crackling of leaves and twigs underfoot.

Winter suddenly rushed up to the edge of a bank, with Locus quickly following suit. Past the small bank of dirt was a steep hill riddled with loose rocks and high winds, beyond that was the small town of Sunnulus.

Falling back on his training from so long ago, Locus activated a small module on the side of his helmet. His eyes were assaulted by the array of thermal heat signatures in the village below. While the former Charon operator was occupied in trying to find anything suspicious in the village below, Winter was typing a quick message onto her scroll.

 _Arrived at target area at 19:00. Situation seems normal. Villagers seem to be starting their day. Proceeding with investigation._

Seeing that nothing in the village was an immediate threat, Locus shut off his thermal and turned his attention to Winter.

"We'll go down to the village along the main road. If all goes as planned, no one will suspect a thing." Winter said.

"And if they do?" Locus questioned, unsure of the plan.

"That's why you're here." Schnee responded cooly.

The town itself was surrounded by a sturdy wall made of wood and iron. Inside the walls, the sights and sounds of everyday family life could be heard as the two as they trekked down the worn path and towards the main gate.

"HALT!" A guard on the wall commanded.

"Now comes the easy part." Schnee muttered.

"Who are you?" A young guard questioned.

"We're bounty hunters from up north." Winter replied.

"Bounty hunters? What are you planning to do here exactly?" An older guard asked, suspiciously.

"We're here to stop for supplies and some rest before we go back to the main city to pick up our next contract." Winter quickly shot back.

A moment's pause between the guards on the wall before the huge iron gate began to creep inwards, opening itself to the peaceful town within.

Without hesitation, Winter took the lead an strolled inside, Locus following behind her with a few more cursory glances towards the men on the wall.

Locus was not one for letting his guard down, as he continued to scan the village for suspicious activity, especially among the faunas of the town.

"Santa, use my helmet cam to scan every female faunas we see." He ordered, keeping his microphone muted so that he wouldn't draw any attention from the villagers.

"Scanning." There was a small blink of light as each face was seen, and Locus looked around lazily to avoid suspicion. His job now easier, he turned his attention back to Winter to avoid suspicion.

"Where should we start looking?" Locus asked his comrade.

"Of all the criminals I've ever captured, the local tavern is most likely where they would be. We should start there. Just don't do anything stupid, we just got into the town." Schnee ordered.

"Right…" Locus affirmed with a roll of his eyes that was thankfully covered by his helmet.

Now the pair had found themselves walking into an olden style tavern, complete with oil lamps and bear rug skins. Some of the patrons, who were eating their dinner, had black and grey dust-like coating adorned across their faces.

 _Likely they're miners. And the majority of them seem to be faunas._ Locus thought.

There was some chatter between the miners before they went back to their daily norm. Internally, Winter was sighing in relief. Currently no one was acting too unusual, which was very good, no need to attract unneeded attention. She did garner a few looks from some of the younger men as she entered, but it was nothing new to her.

The Atlesian casually walked up to the tavern owner, who also happened to be the bartender.

"I'd like one room with two beds, and if you could- " Schnee began.

"120 lien per night per room. One bed per room. No room service." The owner rudely interrupted.

Disgruntled at the overpriced rooms, Winter payed for the rooms and walked back over to Locus with the two room keys, internally fuming. She'd only paid for one room because they should really be sticking close together, but since she was in charge then it seemed the mercenary would have to lump it on the couch.

"Here's your room key." She stated as she dropped the key into the palm of the mercenary's hand. "If we don't find and confirm Uwe today then we meet back here tonight at 22;00. Understood?" She commanded.

"I looked around the tavern. There isn't a single female faunas in here, which means we need to look somewhere else. Should we split up?" Locus questioned.

"Good idea. Stay alert though. She's no huntress, but she is known for her skill with a rifle, as well as her knack for forcing her opponents into unwinnable situations. The last thing she would do is to make a head on assault."

"There's a belltower at the center of town. I can have Santa amplify the range of my scanners, but even from the top I won't be able to cover the whole town." Locus suggested.

"Good idea. I'll search any abandoned buildings around town. Odds are that if Uwe is in town, she'll be in one of those places." Winter advised.

"How are you going to get around town without being noticed?" Locus questioned.

"Don't worry about me, I have my ways. Now get moving." The Atlesian commanded.

Leaving the tavern, Locus was out of sight within seconds, turning invisible before making a beeline for the bell tower. Winter on the other hand leaped onto the roofs, stealthily dashing to the nearest abandoned building as the townspeople continued with their daily lives.

As Locus bypassed anybody near the tower with his shroud, he climbed the belltower, eventually getting to the top. Looking down on the population, he opened up his scanner.

"Santa, scan for any female faunas again." The mercenary turned detective ordered.

"Of course." The alien construct replied as the entire town was engulfed in a red aura, with white dots in between signaling the female faunas that Santa had found.

And so, Locus and Winter began their search for the White Fang terrorist, hoping that they would manage to find her before she could do whatever she was planning to do.

 **At the same time, Location unknown.**

"Are we ready yet?" A voice asked over the phone.

"Not yet, the _package_ has been delivered, but we're still working on _setting it up._ " A feminine voice informed.

"We're running out of time, and if we're not successful, Khan won't be happy with either of us. I'm counting on you Uwe." The person on the phone reminded.

"I always pull things together, don't I?" Uwe assured teasingly.

There was a moment's pause before the phone line went dead, obviously the person on the other end of the phone had not been amused by Uwe's tone.

"Sigh. Of course he hung up. All well..." The faunas said as she walked over the dirty, cracked warehouse window.

"...Let's get this show started."

* * *

 **Oops, I did the thing where I forgot to update for two entire months again. Tee hee hee. Three reasons for that actually.**

 **One: I've already started work on chapter 11, so I've been a bit busy with that.**

 **Two: my beta reader has been busy with his own stuff.**

 **Three: AKAME GA KILL. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH**

 **Ok but seriously, it's a good anime. Rated 18+. Would recommend it.**

 **Also yes I did take a chapter out of the book of cliches and added a POV change but screw it, how else was I gonna change POV without confusing the reader?**

 **Anyways, enjoy this little Thanksgiving vacation treat, I promise chapter 11 will be up by the end of this month.**


	10. Chapter 9: Cat and Mouse

**A Soldier No Longer**

 **Chapter 9: Cat and Mouse**

 **Beta read by: Trusty McGoodGuy**

Winter _knew_ that she was one of the best.

She had trained for many years in the Atlesian Special Operatives Academy. All of her instructors were world renowned legends in the fields that they taught. They taught courses such as stealth, survival, medical treatment, tracking, and of course, combat.

Right now though, Winter was wishing she had remembered more of the lessons from tracking class.

After speaking with Locus, she had run off to the nearest abandoned building, a warehouse near the edge of town. It had been a good starting point, but unfortunately she didn't have anything to go on other than instinct. No signs of movement, or secret markings...nothing.

Choosing to rely on her stealth and instinct instead, which she told herself was _not_ just guessing, Winter jumped up onto the roof, careful not to make a single sound.

Seeing a skylight on the roof, she decided to peer through the glass so that she could see what might await her on the other side. All she saw was a single White Fang insurgent in a sleeveless jacket with the red wolf head symbol patched to his shoulder, bandana and goggles draped over his face.

The Faunas seemed to be working on planting something. Winter assumed it to be some sort of bomb. Immediately the Schnee knew she had to stop whatever nefarious plan this insurgent had before it was too late.

She had quickly raided into the abandoned warehouse through said skylight, deciding to take the shock and awe approach so that the Faunas insurrectionist would not have time to set up any defenses.

As she descended from the skylight like some sort of archangel, the insurgent looked up from what he was doing to spot the Atlesian special operative bearing down on him like a bird of prey. In an instant, the he was already dashing for the door, with Winter in hot pursuit.

He zipped out of the warehouse and into a nearby alley in an attempt to shake his pursuer, with no luck. Just as Winter began to gain on her target, he turned another corner and was out of sight. Within seconds, Winter had made it to the same corner, expecting to find the insurgent on the other side.

Instead she found nothing but an empty dirt street with nobody on it except herself. No footprints could be found either, whoever that faunas was, he was either incredibly fast or extremely stealthy.

Drawing her sabre, she swiftly leaped onto the roof of nearby flat top, hoping to catch a glimpse of her prey. Winter stalked across the rooftop, scanning the surrounding area for even a hint of where her target might have gone.

Nothing.

Sighing, Schnee realized that she had lost her target.

 _"Let's just hope that the rookie is having better luck than me."_ She thought to herself as she sheathed her sabre.

* * *

Locus was not doing much better than his comrade.

Despite the fact that scanning from the belltower meant he could cover nearly the entire town, it didn't mean he would be able to find Uwe immediately, or at all.

Because of the fact that Santa had no prints, face, or any real information to identify Uwe apart from the other female Faunas in the town, he couldn't find her. The alien construct could read the minds of humans, but only when they were within extremely close range.

What's worse, it could be possible that of all the female Faunas scanned, none of them were Uwe herself. Even one the most advanced A.I's in the galaxy had its limits.

"Target not found." Santa stated blankly.

"No suspicious activity detected within the area either?" Locus questioned.

"No suspicious activity has been detected." Santa replied.

Pausing for a moment, the mercenary considered what else the faunas terrorist could be doing that could separate her from the other female Faunas of the town.

Just then, Locus' scroll began to ring, snapping him out of his thoughts. He reached for the magnetic latch on his waist that holstered his scroll, quickly unlatching it. Popping open the holographic screen, he saw that Winter was the one calling him. Locus hit answer.

"You are clear for communication." Locus said.

"Bell tower is the center point. White fang member spotted. Location is zero-four-zero at 1.3. Male. He was setting up a package before I intervened. Target escaped." Winter reported, military code making it so that only Locus could understand what she was saying.

"Understood. Calculating bearing now." Locus said as he began to triangulate the position that Winter had given him. The belltower was obviously the center point that Winter had given him. Zero-four-zero is the bearing, and 1.3 is the distance in miles.

All of this information put together meant that a White Fang member had been spotted 1.3 miles southeast of the bell tower. That meant that he was at the warehouse on the edge of town.

"Position located, heading there now." Locus confirmed as he began his descent from the top of the bell tower, ending the call as he did.

Invisibility still activated, Locus reached for the same floor hatch he has used to traverse to the top of the tower.

 **CRREEEAAAKK**

Without warning, the hatch opened by itself, revealing an old man with a toolbox and maintenance uniform.

Immediately, Locus retreated to the farthest corner of the belltower, he knew well enough that if he were to be spotted somewhere he wasn't supposed to be, people would begin to ask questions. All Locus could do was watch as the old man began his inspection.

Slowly the man walked around. Suddenly, he froze, worrying Locus for a split second before the repair bent over and picked up a shiny metal object off of the floor of the tower.

"Soda cans, again? Darn kids, thinking they can use the bell tower as their little after school hideout. Ah well. Better clean up this mess and get the bell oiled." The old man stated to no one in particular.

Time started to fly as the old man labored away all the mercenary could do was sit and observe.

For an entire hour, Locus did just that. But finally, the repairman concluded his menial tasks before he packed up, sliding down the same ladder he came through. Three solid minutes later, Locus did the same.

Dashing across to the last coordinates Winter had given him, Locus spotted Winter herself, with a very cross look adorning her face. Before her comrade even had a chance to uncloak, Winter was already chastising him.

"Where were you?! I've been waiting here for over an hour!" She yelled in Locus' ear.

"A repairman showed up, I couldn't even move until he finally left!" Locus shot back, keeping his voice steady in an attempt to avoid any more arguments. Thankfully, she couldn't see the scowl hiding behind his helmet.

"And you couldn't just sneak past him?" Winter interrogated.

"The only escape point I had was the floor hatch, and he would have known I was there the second I opened it. Don't you think it would be the _least_ bit suspicious to find two bounty hunters being somewhere they shouldn't be?" Locus reasoned.

"Gah! You really are a nuisance, I hope you realize that." The Atlesian Specialist disparaged, pinching the bridge of her nose.

 **RING RING RING**

"Is that yours?" The mercenary questioned.

"Strange, I'm not scheduled to have a debriefing with Ironwood for the next seven hours." Winter disclosed.

Pulling out her scroll, the Atlesian saw that it was not General Ironwood trying to contact her, instead it was an unknown caller. Winter glanced at Locus worryingly, an unknown caller during an op was never a good sign.

Swiftly, Winter swiped the answer button on the scroll, putting the call on speaker.

"This is a secure Atlesian channel. Calling this number without clearance is a national offense." Winter announced confidently into the receiver.

A calm collected voice, garbled by a voice changer replied instantly. "Having two Atlesian operatives on Mistralian soil without government clearance is also a national offense, Ms. Schnee." The voice on the other end of the line said.

Winters eyes widened whilst Locus sent a few silent commands to Santa to begin tracking the call. Locus was more than familiar with communication lines being hacked, but it seemed the miss high and mighty wasn't. He'd be lying if he said he took no enjoyment out of that.

Shocked, the Atlesian quickly yelled back into the receiver. "Identify yourself, immediately!"

"You know, just a few minutes ago one of my men reported to me. Said he had been chased out of the warehouse he was operating in. He also mentioned that he had failed to complete his objective because of your interference." The voice said, ignoring the command.

"So you must be part of the White Fang if he was one of your men." Winter put together.

"Correct. Now thanks to that setback, I have to get involved in this little operation personally." The voice explained.

"You're Uwe, aren't you?" Winter asked.

"Close, but no. I'm not Uwe. Good try though."

"So you're confirming that Uwe _is_ involved in the White Fang." Winter realized.

"Took you that long to figure it out? I thought you specialists were smarter than that." The voice taunted.

Finally, Locus spoke up. "What are you planning to do in Sunnulus?" He asked in a serious tone, buying the A.I. more time to track him.

"Well well. The lapdog mercenary _can_ talk. I'd tell you, but that would ruin the surprise, now wouldn't it? But I _will_ tell you this; you're gonna see a whole new point of view when we're done here." Ranted the voice on the other end of the line.

"Where are you, now?" Winter seethed.

"….I'll be seeing you soon." Concluded the voice as the line went dead.

As Winter pocketed her scroll, Locus began scanning the surrounding the area once again, this time for surveillance equipment. He spotted at least three security cameras in multiple directions. All of them were looking straight at him and Winter.

"He has controls over the cameras." Locus whispered, making a subtle shake of his head to point them out.

"How? All the cameras in town are controlled in one place!" Winter pointed out.

Locus groaned as the camera's no doubt picked up her voice. His annoyance made even worse as Santa overlayed a map on his HUD, pointing him directly towards the village's security center.

A silence fell over the two as they realized that the hijacking of camera controls could only mean one thing.

Winter unsheathed her sabre and bolted towards the camera control center. "Damn it!" She cursed as she ran, with Locus following behind, MAAW in hand.

Looking down and to the right from her vantage point on the roof, Winter spotted the open backdoor. The door was still open, which could have meant any number of things. All that truly mattered though, was that it was a free entrance.

Silently, Winter hand-signaled that the door was open, which meant that it was likely that there were White Fang inside. Locus acknowledged with a curt nod. Slowly and professionally, the two operatives sneaked up to the door. Winter went in first, with Locus quickly following suit.

The Schnee tensed up as she entered, expected to find multiple White Fang operatives on the other side of the door waiting for her. Instead, she saw nothing but frayed electrical wires and some large computer screens displaying the footage from the cameras that Locus had detected earlier.

Swiftly, Locus progressed towards the center of the small house-like building. As he turned the corner at the end of a hallway, he noticed a desk with a computer on it. What intrigued the mercenary, was the body slumped over said desk.

The mercenary's quick blitzkrieg pace slowed to one of caution. Steadily advancing on the body, he had Santa scans the room for any possible threats that could be nearby. Nearing the body, Locus reached out to the body with one hand, turning it over to see if he or she was still alive.

In the nanosecond after Locus turned the body over, he realized three things that all pieced together. First, the body was not dead, it wasn't even unconscious, she was fully awake and waiting for Locus. Second, she was a Faunas. A snake Faunas to be exact, which meant that she might be White Fang. However the third and final clue confirmed that she was indeed a member of the Fang.

She was grasping a dead man switch.

Locus already had his gun raised but couldn't pull the trigger due to the switch. The Faunus leapt to her feet, and her eyes locked with Locus' even though his gaze was hidden behind his helmet.

Winter entered the room calmly, her sabre sheathed.

"The rest of the compound is clea-" She began. She didn't get very far before she noticed the Faunas in the room. In the blink of an eye, The Atlesian had her weapon of choice brandished. As Winter unsheathed her sabre, the Faunas rose her left hand to show the dead man switch.

"Ah ah ah. I wouldn't if I were you." The Faunas warned, waving the detonator between her fingers. Seeing the switch, Winter hesitated for a moment, before stepping back.

"How many explosives are connected to that switch, Uwe?" Winter inquired.

"Do you really want to find out?" The now-named Uwe challenged confidently.

"….Why are you doing this? Why the explosives?" Winter questioned after a moment's pause.

"I knew I wasn't going to be able to just run as soon as that call to you was made, which is why I decided to rig some crates full of explosive dust beforehand. I only rigged one or two...or 30" Uwe revealed.

"What about the other Faunas that live here?" Locus questioned.

"I had some of my comrades warn them beforehand. They're well away from harm I can tell you that much. We're not savages, we don't kill our own for no reason." Uwe reminded.

Winter sighed. "….What do you want?" Winter asked, defeated.

"You two are going to leave this town, you're going to go crawling back to whatever pit you came from and tell your boss that I was never here and neither was the White Fang." Uwe demanded.

"And what will you do if we come back here with a full strike team?" Winter threatened.

"Then I turn half this mining town into powder. You really want to gamble with that many lives? Go ahead, you've done it before." Uwe taunted, a hint of aggression in her voice.

Confused by the Faunas insurgent's last remark, Locus turned to Winter. "What does she mean by that?" The mercenary questioned.

Winter only stood there in silence, brows furrowed, eyes locked with the terrorist in the room.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about, Schnee. Question is..." Uwe commented as she turned to Locus. "…..Are you going to tell him?"

 **I know I said I would have this chapter out sooner, but to the two and a half people here who actually care (including that one guest who was disappointed in me for not putting it up during November), sorry I guess.**

 **Anyways, I completed this chapter on the 30** **th** **of November** **, but it probably won't be up until at least tomorrow (December 7** **th** **) because a beta reader needs their time to edit, you know.**

 **Oh! And before I forget, I'm thinking of writing a new fanfic. Won't be telling the premise yet, but it does revolve around team RWBY, and my beta reader already knows what it is.**

 **So uh, yeah. Seeya next chapter. Have a day or something, I dunno. Oh and remember to leave a review.**


	11. Chapter 10: The Mauss Incident

**Chapter 10: Article Seven**

 **A Soldier No Longer**

 **Beta Read By: Trusty McGoodGuy**

Article Seven, commonly referred to as the Mauss incident.

If Winter was correct, then that was the to which Uwe was referring to.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Winter asked.

"Oh, it doesn't really have anything to do with what we're doing here as a whole... It's more personal than that. So please, inform your oh so ignorant comrade of what you did in Mauss before I blow us all up." Uwe threatened.

"Winter, what is she talking about?" Locus inquired.

"She's talking about Article Seven. It happened in the large town of Mauss, a town comprised of humans and faunus who accepted each other. The town had been established immediately after the great war next to the Atlesian border, and just as it started to become large enough to become a city, the attack happened." Winter explained.

"The attack?" Locus queried.

"A group of human extremists decided that they didn't want to have faunus in the town of Mauss, so they decided to do something about it. One night, under the cover of darkness, the humans kidnapped a large sum of faunus in the town, and stashed them inside of their compound on the edge of town, afterwards they pushed out the remaining humans. Since they put all the faunus in one building, a ten-man team of specialists was sent in to rescue to captives."

Winter continued. "But it all went wrong. They knew they were coming, and the extremists knew what they were up against. They set off chemical weapons all over the compound, killing all but three of the original ten-man team, as well as all of the faunus and the extremists."

"What was the point of that?" Locus wondered.

"I don't know." Winter answered.

"Did you know that my own brother was part of the faunus that got killed?" Uwe asked out of nowhere.

"You still haven't told us what that has to do with anything." Locus shot back.

"You _still_ haven't put two and two together yet? I lied when I said there were explosives in the crates, ya know. What's really in there is much worse."

A shocked expression dawned on Winter's face a realization dawned on her.

"You want to recreate Article Seven? Are you insane?!" She yelled.

"Yes, to both questions, actually. But hey, you know what they say..." Uwe responded as she began to squeeze the detonator.

"…. The one with the most power is always right."

It all happened in an instant. Two triggers were pulled, one for the detonator, the other for Locus' MAAW. Bullets ripped through the air towards the insane faunus, but it was all for naught. The bio-weapon had already been released.

Dust tipped rounds slammed into Uwe's aura, knocking her out cold before she even had time to react.

Knowing the capturing Uwe would give them vital information to find out whoever was really responsible for setting up the attacks, Locus dragged Uwe's unconcious form they saw when they outside terrified them.

The cloud was already starting to spread.

As Winter and Locus rushed to the outside, they took note of situation at hand. To the west the humans of Sunnulus fleeing to the edges of town in a futile attempt to escape. To the east was the chemical weapon itself.

A colossal cloud of rolling toxic gas, hued a nauseating orange and two stories high, was slowly making its way in all directions, cornering and suffocating the denizens who hadn't scurried away from the cloud fast enough.

Like a tsunami that swallows everything in its path, the cloud began to advance on a small family, who were desperately making their way away from the gas.

Without a word to each other, they split up, immediately springing into action as they attempted to save as many civilians as they could manage from the toxic cloud.

Running towards the cloud, Locus spotted a little girl no older than ten cowering under a cart in the street while covering her eyes, hoping that the lethal chemical weapon was all just a bad dream.

The space mercenary dashed forward, using his strength to overturn the cart and grab the child, who began to wail in protest.

Ignoring the child's pleas, Locus began to make a beeline for the edge of town, as he ordered up the quickest route out of town, using Santa's help. As he made a mad dash to his objective, he could see Winter using her glyphs to quickly escort multiple people out the danger zone, as well as what looked like another huntsman sprinting into a house, helping a family to escape their doomed home.

As soon as he got to the edge of town, he quickly handed the girl into the hands of the first townsperson he saw, a fairly old man with a constellation of deep scars running across the left side of his face.

Not long after, the mercenary rushed back into the fray, saving as many people as he could find, his suit's respiration system allowing him to stay in the gas cloud for short period of time.

Person after person were guided by the Atlesian operators, who eventually evacuated the entirety of the population that had not succumbed to the chemical weapon to the clearing on the hill, outside of town.

There were few casualties, a small number of those injured by the gas, and fewer still who had actually died from the gas. As far as the headcount went, the townspeople estimated that only three people had died during the whole incident.

Of course, many people had questions, the first of which being...

"What on Remnant just happened?" One of the townspeople, a faunus tailor demanded to know.

"A White Fang member has detonated a chemical weapon in the center of town, that's all we can say at the moment." Locus replied, taking charge.

Of course, this response immediately set the stage for the second, and much more important question.

"Wait, White Fang? You mean you two bounty hunters knew this was gonna happen?!" A local tailor asked, anger rising in her voice.

"We were only sent here to investigate a suspect terrorist, we didn't know they had set up a chemical weapon." Winter answered, trying to salvage the current situation.

This time a new voice spoke up to question the pair. "Sent by whom?" The mayor of town inquired.

A momentary pause settled in the air before Winter replied, deciding that following military doctrine was her best way out of the situation.

"….That's classified." She replied curtly, refusing to give any more information.

And with that, the surviving members of Sunnulus were in an uproar, protesting against what they believed to be the military coming to their peaceful village without telling anyone. The military in Mistral wasn't very popular, as they made many...harsh decisions in the past.

Soon, the mayor of the town, a short, grey haired old woman, called for the noise to die down. Reasoning that the Grimm would begin to appear if they continued their uproar.

"Who exactly did we lose in the attack?" She asked her assistant.

"We lost Nuoro and Leon, they got trapped inside of their home and couldn't make it out. Their daughter Canatia, did make it out thankfully. I also saw Persian, our town huntsman, run into the cloud to try and find some more people to save, he hasn't come out since." The assistant listed.

As the townspeople looked from the assistant back to Locus and Winter, they saw only the boot prints from which the pair had stood, for they were now gone.

 **SOMEWHERE IN THE SUNNULUS FOREST.**

Locus knew that even though they had given the townspeople minimal information, even with that, it was enough to start some controversy. The mercenary knew what would befall Winter and himself should the wrong information reach the wrong ears, but it wasn't like he could just go back and silence all the townspeople.

The only option that the two mercenaries had at this point was to fall back to friendly territory and hope that didn't happen.

Within minutes, a bullhead had been dispatched to their location, airlifting them out of the forest that stood next the once proud town, now reduced to a wasteland.

Soon, the thrust of the bullheads twin engines carried the pair of soldiers out of the AO. Even though they were out of the hotzone, both warriors knew that they still had Ironwood's wrath to deal with.

When the operators touched down in the citadel, they were immediately greeted with the sight of Ironwood's personal guard, as well as the general himself, who seemed to be quite irate at the moment, which meant that he already must have been informed on what happened in Sunnulus.

Without a wave of his hand, Ironwood dismissed his guard, who fell back behind the other workers in the area. As the general turned to walk to his office, Locus and Winter followed.

The second they reached his office, he closed the door behind them, which for the next part, was thankfully soundproofed.

"What the hell happened out there?!" Ironwood shouted at the pair, exasperated that a delicate military operation had been compromised so quickly by a single individual.

"Uwe was not working alone, there was a second individual that managed to hack into my scroll. I'm willing to bet that whoever the second individual was, was the one calling the shots, sir." Winter reported.

"And who exactly was this second individual, operative Schnee?" Ironwood asked, forcing himself to contain his anger.

"I...don't know, sir."

"Until we find out all the details of what happened in Sunnulus, finding this second individual is your top priority." Ordered the Atlesian general.

"Yes, sir." Winter replied, obediently following orders.

 **An Hour Later, Location Unknown**

"Our operative in Sunnulus was forced to activate the device before all the preparations were made." A mysterious voice reported, speaking in front of a screen of four others, assumably the figure's superiors.

"Hmmm. This complicates things. Uwe wasn't supposed to set off the gas until our preperations with the Grimm were complete." A deep, rough voice pointed out.

"It matters not, now. Sunnulus was but a test, and even without full preparations, it appears that this test was a success. Who is our operative for our test in Vale?" A feminine voice questioned.

"It would appear by my reports that our next operative on the list is a mercenary. He's human, but it appears he'll do any job for the right price." A third voice replied.

"Do we have a name?" The feminine voice questioned once again?

"Yes. He calls himself...'Sharkface.'"

 **AAAAAAND CUT!**

 **GAH IT'S SO CLICHÉ I HATE IT. I HATE IT ALL.**

 **I was originally planning for this story to go down the M-rated path where half the town died, but I couldn't really make that work, so I had to re-write half the damn chapter. Eh whatever. Can't win em all. The second reason I completely dropped writing for a while is because I decided I wanted to start a youtube channel for the sake of having another hobby.**


	12. Chapter 11: You Know The Name

**A Soldier No Longer**

 **Chapter 11: You Know The Name**

 **Beta Read By: Trusty McGoodGuy**

You know, I always figured that me ending up on this planet was some sort of dumb stroke of luck, that there must have been someone or something out there that must have purposely put me on this rock instead of giving me death by nuclear incineration.

Not to say that I was complaining, I much would have preferred to spend the rest of my days alone on an uninhabited, non war torn planet.

Unfortunately, that was the problem. It was inhabited.

The Grimm were always a nuisance, they had been since I first ended up on this planet. Luckily for me, I _didn't_ show up in the middle of a forest somewhere, else I'd be Beowulf chow right now.

I thought the Grimm would be the only problem I had while on this planet, but again, I was wrong. There were people as well. If there was one thing that I knew it's that where there's people, there's bound to be problems.

Didn't matter to me at the time, though. I just wanted to get on with my life, to hell with whatever happened to Carolina and her ragtag team of idiots. Same goes to those two mercenary lapdogs, Locus and Felix.

I didn't know just where I was or why I was here, but I didn't care, I just wanted to start over. I decided to find the nearest town that needed help with eliminating nearby Grimm, and of course with my combat skills, they welcomed me into the town with open arms.

They had no idea of my past or who I was.

Then one day after clearing out some Grimm, a lady in a red dress approached me with a very generous offer.

* * *

"You aren't getting anything out of me!" Uwe snarled

The small reinforced interrogation room, no bigger than a cubicle, had been reserved for Uwe. The snake faunus had been strapped to the chair by welded steel cuffs, along with two automated turrets that lined the ceiling, just to make sure she didn't escape. The constant whir and buzz of the turret's automated systems were the only other noise filling the room.

The terrorist had woken up in this chair, faced with the promise of life in a max security prison or execution should she fail to comply with the Atlesians.

That didn't stop her from stonewalling questions from Winter and Locus all night long, however.

"Well then, I suppose we'll just have to stop feeding you. It would save us the cost of having to lethally inject you. After all, fast acting poison like that doesn't come cheap, and it's worth a lot more than your own life right now." Winter taunted, coaxing Uwe to panic and give away information.

"Awww how cute. Another threat? Are you going to make good on that 'promise' just like all the other times you've threatened me and done nothing? Face it, you still need me alive." Taunted Uwe.

Winter grimaced, knowing that Uwe was too smart to fall for any threat that she had to offer the snake faunus. Looks like it was time to try a different approach, with said approach being left up to the discretion of her comrade

Time to go find Locus.

"Sigh. Well, I tried to be nice, but now it looks like you'll have to talk to my partner." Winter responded nonchalantly.

"Great, another human I have to deal with. Maybe he'll be less boring than you are." Uwe shot back, not really caring for what Winter had to say at this point.

Formulating a plan in her mind to get Uwe to spill the beans in finer detail, Winter replied "Oh trust me, he will be."

Closing and locking the magnetically sealed door behind her, Winter turned and strolled over to Locus, who had been witnessing the whole proceeding through a one way window built into the observation room.

"I assume you've come to me because you want me to interrogate her?" Locus inquired.

"Yes. You have clearance to do whatever you deem necessary to get her to talk. HQ has already cleared that, and she's a terrorist, which means no one will be missing her. Minus anyone she might know in the criminal underworld, but what are they to do? Ask the police for help?" Winter informed.

Locus was almost impressed with Winter. "You're quite thorough."

"I'm an Atlesian Specialist, they don't accept anyone that isn't as thorough as I am. Besides, it's about time you squeeze that information from Uwe. The sooner you get her to talk, the sooner we can catch whoever is responsible for ordering the attacks."

"I believe I have a plan to get her to give us the info we need." Locus concurred as he headed for the interrogation chamber, armored fists primed and ready to knock the faunus terrorist's teeth in until the information was given.

Opening up the reinforced magnetic door, Locus spotted his next victim sitting helplessly, strapped to a metal chair in the middle of the room, with only the automated turrets to keep her company.

"Ah there he is! The operative who shot me into a coma. Don't worry, with that stoic attitude, combat experience, and advanced weaponry, I'm sure you'll fit in just fine with all the other Atlesian scum around here." The faunus commented brashly.

"You nearly weren't this cynical when you were trying to unleash a chemical weapon in Sunnulus." The mercenary stated.

"What can I say? Nine out of ten odds says I'm gonna spend the rest of my life here, so I might as well entertain myself before those whirring turret motors drive me crazy." Uwe shot back almost instantly.

" _Well you wouldn't be wrong_." A familiar voice boomed over the microphone that was connected to the speaker in the interrogation room.

"Pershing..." Locus grimaced.

"Who the hell is-" Uwe wondered. She didn't get the chance to finish as the entrance to the interrogation room wooshed open, revealing the Atlesian that had shot Locus while he was down.

"What are you doing here?" Locus sneered at the one who had betrayed him.

"Oh come on, lad, don't be like that. I'm here to help." Pershing apologized.

Despite Pershing's plea, it wasn't enough for Locus. "And?"

"And I'm sorry for shooting you, I was under orders and I won't do it again."

"Hmph. Fine." Locus 'accepted' because of their audience, but kept an eye on Pershing just in case.

"Hey uh, if you two lovebirds and done playing kiss and makeup then that'd be amazing." Uwe interrupted, sarcasm thick on her tongue.

"Hey weren't you the one who said that you were gonna spend the rest of your life in cell like two minutes ago? Also wow, no need to be so rude to one of your own kind." Pershing cooed.

"One of my own? Please. Don't make me laugh." Uwe denied.

Realizing that uwe hadn't understood what he meant, Pershing added on to clarify what he meant. "By 'one of your own', I didn't mean that I was White Fang."

"What are you talking about?" Uwe questioned, confused as to what Pershing was trying to tell her.

In response to this, Pershing just popped off his flat cap as if he were tossing a coin, revealing his rat ears to the world. Uwe was dumbstruck, her whole life she had been led to believe that the White Fang were fighting for a noble and just cause. That everyone who opposed them was a bigoted human working for a racist hierarchy.

That belief was shattered the moment Pershing revealed his true heritage to Uwe.

"Y-You're a faunas? Working for Atlas?" Uwe questioned, barely being able to contain the disbelief in her voice.

"I don't know, probably." Pershing answered, spinning his cap around on his index finger like a propeller blade.

"Why? What reason do you have to be working for the same people that have been denying faunas basic right for half a century?!"

"Denying faunas rights? Goodness gracious, woman, would you listen to yourself? I've worked for Atlas for years now, and I have never seen anyone getting their right denied. I don't know what they teach you in the Fang about Atlas, but I'm willing to bet that it isn't true."

Thoughts were racing through Uwe's mind so fast that they could break the sound barrier. A faunas working for Atlas? What other faunas had taken the same path as Pershing? What had the White Fang really been planning all those times she went on an operation?

What was she even fighting for, if everything she had been told was possibly a lie?

"So. Uwe Pacific..." Pershing began as he leaned in close towards the other faunas' face.

"...You ready to tell us who you're working for?"

* * *

Despite the fact that they had given Uwe evidence that she was being lied to, Locus was not convinced. "That almost seemed too easy."

"So? She gave us a name, that's all we really need." Pershing shot back.

"Hmph."

Uwe Pacific had given the name of her commanding officer that had given her the order to start the attack on the town. Gideon was his name, Gideon Saschen. All Uwe knew about him was his name, and his reputation.

Gideon was known for being a man who, once he set his mind to something, never gave up until the task was complete, no matter what the cost. His mission wasn't to wipe out Sunnulus, his mission was to see what the effects of the chemical agent was on humans.

The two mercenaries walked down the hallway to the control room, where they saw Winter with a satisfied grin on her face.

She began. "Good work, Pershing. I'm surprised you were so comfortable using your own heritage as an interrogation technique."

"Meh, why not." Pershing shrugged.

"Now I've got some good and bad news for you both." Winter offered.

"Good news first, please." Pershing requested.

"The good news is that we managed to track down Gideon Saschen. Our net of informants reports that he's somewhere in downtown Vacuo." Winter reported.

"And the bad news?" Locus asked.

"It isn't confirmed, but there's a rumor spreading that they're already planning another attack." Winter said.

"Where?"

"I don't know. Some of the rumors say Mistral, others say Mantle... We can't confirm where the next attack will be." Winter said.

"So what you're saying is that we have no idea where the next attack will happen unless we find Gideon, and then find the next bomb?" Pershing asked.

"I'm afraid that's correct." Winter confirmed.

 **GAWD DAYUM. WHUZ IT BEEN? 3 MONTHS? I've really been a procrastinating fart these past few months, but I blame being busy. With what you may ask? I got asked to help write a script for a short film by some of my friends, so I'm really busy writing that right now rather than ASNL, so don't expect any ASNL updates for like, the next four years idk.**

 **Anyways bye.**


	13. Chapter 12: The City Of The East

**Chapter 12: The City Of The East**

A dusty flag waved over an battered and aged militia fort.

The symbol for the White Fang flapped in the wind for all to see, over what was once a base used in the great war, but was now instead a White Fang outpost South of Vacuo. In this fort, A White Fang grunt ran through the base to deliver his report to his commanding officer.

Finding who he was looking for, the grunt quickly saluted before delivering his expected report.

"Sir, It appears that operative Uwe was captured by the Atlesian recon team." A White Fang grunt relayed to his commanding officer.

"And?" The officer asked, turning to face the grunt.

"She... gave out your name, sir." He said hesitantly, knowing his commanding officer could explode into a vicious rage and kill him easily at any moment.

"Hmph. Good." The officer said.

Surprised, they grunt raised an eyebrow and decided to inquire. "Sir?"

"She was just another cog in the machine. She did her part, now we do ours. That's all you need to know. Dismissed."

"Of course, sir."

Quickly, the soldier left the room, leaving only his commander to mull over the next part of the plan. Or so it seemed. The red eyes slits of a White Fang mask glowed from the corner of the room, outlining a slim swordsman.

"Is the second canister ready?" Adam Taurus asked from the corner of the room.

"Not quite yet, We still need to perfect the solution to the enth degree. While the chemical was immensely effective in the town of Mauss, it isn't quite perfect yet. Our mutual friend, The Chemist, isn't quite satisfied with the time it took to suffocate the people in Mauss." The Officer reported

"The bio-weapon is already good enough as it is. We don't need it to be perfect, we just need it to work." Adam pointed out.

"The Chemist doesn't care, he says refuses to give you another canister until he can perfect the solution to be able to kill in less than three seconds." The Officer said, anticipating Adams complaint.

At a hair's breath, Adam unsheathed his sword and put it up against the Officer's throat, giving no time for him to react. Despite this threat to his life, the Officer seemed indifferent.

"Tell your Chemist friend that I know where he resides, and that he has three days to get me another canister, or else I'll find someone else who can perfect his solution. And the first test of the new chemical will be on him." Adam seethed.

"I'll be sure to pass it along." The Officer grunted.

Removing the sword from his throat and sheathing it, Adam began to walk out the room, having got what he wanted. He turned to the Officer one more time.

"Oh, and Gideon, if you ever run into Blake, give her my condolences." Adam requested.

"Condolences for what?" Gideon questioned.

But Gideon got no response other than Adam walking out of the room without saying another word.

* * *

Usually the ride to Vacuo would only take a few hours, but to the Atlesians, it felt like years upon years. The fact that another attacks could happen anywhere in the world at any time made them impatient people. Of course, this didn't make the Bullhead they were on go any faster, it was already cruising at maximum speed without overheating the fire dust fueled engine.

In the distance off to the bullhead's left side, there she stood. Vacuo, the city of the east. The walls were tough, and the people tougher. Bars, blue collars, and faunus dotted the landscape, and one couldn't go more than 10 feet without running into someone who'd been in their share of fights. It may not have been the friendliest of places, but to four million people, it was home.

To the Atlesians however, it was a different story. Winter was the first to throw in her two cents.

"So that's the City of the East? Hmph."

"What? Not the Great Jewel of the Sand like you'd hoped?" Pershing piped.

Winter thought back to the past time she'd been here. "I've only been here a few times before when I was younger. Usually I was to busy listening to my father's incessant ranting about how I needed to be better as a Schnee, than to take in the scenery." Winter reflected

"Yeah, makes sense. Vacuo's filled to the brim with raw dusts, including kinds you can't find anywhere else in the world. Why'd your father never go after the rarer dusts anyhow?" Pershing asked.

"It was his business decision, why go after the rarer dusts when there was literal mountains of fire dust needed to fuel the Atlesian military?" Winter explained.

"No one else went after the more common dusts?" Pershing questioned.

"There were quite a few who had the same idea, but my Father ended up buying them all out... one way or another."

The bullhead slowly began to descend to a numbered landing pad, it's powerful twin engines blowing away nearby papers and other litter, as well as kick up a small sand cloud. As the side bay doors opened, the Atlesians caught a glimpse of multiple figures approaching the bullhead from behind the kicked up sand.

Not a moment later, the engines simultaneously switched off, clearing up the cloud and revealing both groups into the light. There were five of them, four of whom being what appeared to be officer decked out in full combat equipment, body armor, and heavy duty weapons of choice.

The fifth person appeared to be an old worn down huntsman with a large weaponized spade adorning his back. Adorned with a Campaign hat and a patched combat suit, he approached the new arrivals.

"You three fuckers must Atlesian recon team they sent to give us info on that terrorist." The Huntsman asked.

"All business, no introductions, old hardass, and a mouth so foul you could wash it with bleach? You must be Woestyn." Pershing responded.

"No shit, smartass. You got the info on this terrorist or not? I got six teams on standby waiting to be deployed and until we find this bomb-humping fucknut, and they're all just gonna sit around twiddling their thumbs instead of doing literally anything else like they're paid to god damn do." Woestyn shot back, his temper flaring, and his patience waning.

"Watch your language." Winter said.

Snapping his face to Winter, Woestyn continued. "Well _excuse_ me, miss bitchy britches, I ain't exactly used to just standing around all day debating on menial shit with you Atlesians. God knows you're good at it. Now get moving, we've wasted enough time already."

Winter cocked an eyebrow but said nothing, knowing that it would be a fruitless effort to argue with someone as headstrong as Woestyn. She continued after the grizzled huntsman. Pershing, on the other hand, fought back a smirk while trailing behind the group.

Locus watched the whole transition, but behind the armor of his helmet, no one could say his expression, not that he had one anyways, except perhaps the slightest hint of amusement.

"You're awfully quiet." Pershing remarked to Locus.

"I don't have anything important to say." Locus simply said.

"You're still pissed about what happened in the nightclub, aren't you?" Pershing guessed.

"I'm not too angry about it anymore, you were just doing what you had to. At the same time I can't say I was happy with it either."

"I don't suppose there's anything I can do to make it up to you, is there?"

"Top left building." Locus said suddenly.

"What?" Pershing questioned, confused.

"Top left building. Santa says that he's been following us since we landed, and by his looks, he isn't local military or police."

Pershing kept walking, knowing that if he turned to see their trailer that he might get spooked and make a break for it. Instead he advanced towards Woestyn.

"What's up?" Woestyn asked, sensing Pershing coming up from behind.

"Do you have any of your people trailing us from the rooftop?"

"No."

"Do we ignore him?"

"Suppose so, at least for now."

Pershing quickly retreated back to where Locus was walking, through the wide, dusty street towards the police headquarters.

"Any idea who it is?" Locus inquired.

"I have a clue who it might be, but I don't want to make any calls until I know for sure."

"We have two more people trailing us at 8 and 2 'o clock." Locus reported.

"Looks like the locals are getting to know us well. I don't think we'll have to worry about them. At least not just yet."

As the group walked through the sand-ridden street, Santa kept tabs on the strangers trailing them. Like a pack of lions, the spies stalked their prey from a distance. Gathering as much information as possible before making any aggressive moves.

Finally, one of the spies retreated, drawing a handheld radio from her waist. She squeezed her thumb against the talk button before speaking in her native Vacuan tongue.

 _"Sê vir die baas dat die nooit meer geland het nie"_

After a couple of moments, a low, scratchy voice came through the receiver.

 _"_ _Verstaan. Hou toesig op ons nuwe aankomste."_

With that, the spy pocketed her radio before leaping off the roof in search for a better recon position.

By that time, the group had reached police headquarters, proceeding into a secure location under the base.

Woestyn immediately got down to business. "Alright. What do we know about this guy?"

"From what we know, his name is Gideon Saschen. Recent intel has suggested that he's somewhere in downtown Vacuo planning an attack." Winter briefed.

"Do we know where he's gonna attack next?"

"No. But we have confirmed that he is working with the White Fang."

"The Fang? Damn. That's gonna be a big problem."

"How so?" Winter questioned.

Woestyn leaned back in his chair, putting his arms behind his head.

"The Fang has a lot of influence in downtown Vacuo already. Nightclubs, hotels...Hell, whole markets pretty much belong to them. Not only that, but about half of our force's childhoods belong to those streets. Taking an urban battle to where they grew up is gonna be hard on morale." Woestyn pointed out, like an expert tactician.

"If it's any consolation, he likely won't attack any place with a high concentration of faunus. He is working with the White Fang after all." Pershing pointed out.

"I don't suppose you know exactly where the hell in downtown Vacuo he is?" Woestyn asked.

"I'm afraid not." Winter noted.

Woestyn sat back up, scratching idly at his chin, thinking of a way they could track down Gideon.

"There is... well, no..." He began before stopping himself.

"What is there?" Locus questioned, persuading the huntsman into continuing.

"Well... There's a powerful street gang known as the Grenadiers. They have been known to help out people in need when they need it, and the shit they do usually isn't anything violent. Just a couple of burglaries and fist fights every now and then. They're more of a boon than hindrance so we tend to stay out of each other's way." Woestyn explained, uncertain if what he was about to suggest would even work.

"What's this got to do with Gideon?"

"I've worked in this city long enough to know that information is more valuable a weapon than any gun or sword. Nothing illegal goes through Mistral without the leader of the Grenadiers knowledge."

Now it was Pershing's turn to pipe up. "But no one knows who the leader of the Grenadiers really is..."

"Exactly." Woestyn confirmed.

Realizing what they were suggesting, Winter leaned forward in her chair to ask the million-lien question.

"How do you suppose we find him then?" She asked.

"We don't. They're gonna find us." Woestyn concluded.

A moment of mutual silence blanketed the room like snow. Pershing spoke first.

"...You do realize how cliché that sou-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, I know, god damn it." Woestyn interrupted. "Look, I'll do what I can to arrange a meeting. After that, you guys are on your own."

"Understood." Locus nodded.

"Well then gentlemen..." Pershing declared. "Let's get to work and pay the bills."

* * *

 **Yeah uh, so a lot has happened over to course of me switching over to script writing instead of regular writing. First of all, the reason I came back to this story so soon is... well...**

 **I got fired.**

 **I was supposed to be the script writer for the short film team, but since our director usually ends up writing down his whole idea as a script before he even tells anyone else, there usually isn't any point in having me there, anymore. So I pretty much got laid off. Yay.**

 **They said I can still work freelance though, showing up to film shoots and taking care of the small utilities when they need me to. So I got that going for me.**

 **Oh also I got my Spanish finals done and for the most part I passed.**

 **I think.**

 **So because of the fact that I got liad off from the short film company, I no longer have an excuse to not work on ASNL. Of course, I still probably won't update very often.**

 **Have a good day everyone.**

 **-Writen**

 **OH! And P.S. make sure to subscribe to my film team's youtube channel. It's called CatchPhrame**

 **(And no, before you ask, I'm not starring in either of those short films.)**

 **Anyways favorite, follow, review. All that**


	14. Dissapointment

Hey just so yall know, this story is pretty much dead.


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